Harry Potter and the Parallel Universe
by piper17
Summary: Harry Potter –a hero– nobody can disagree with that, a superstar, a saviour to all some may say. But who saves the hero when he’s in trouble, is he supposed to do it himself or will he use help from Hermione, who will do anything to save him
1. The beginning

**Harry Potter and the Parallel Universe**

Chapter One – The beginning 

Harry lay on his bed, while staring at his ceiling. Watching his life go by. 'What life' thought Harry as he traced the white swirls on his ceiling with his eyes. His thoughts had been made up of mainly Sirius. Who could blame him though, having his only father figure snatched out of his hands. Yet again, he thought angrily. What right did Voldemort have to take him?

Harry's hands clenched beside him as he struggled to hold back the tears that threatened to overwhelm him. He rolled over on the bed so he was now staring at the wall. The plain peach colour of the walls calmed him down slightly, until he fell into an unsettled slumber.

* * *

Meanwhile somewhere in Lincolnshire, Hermione was just feeding the remainder of her bird feed to Hedwig, so that she would be prepared for the long flight to Surrey. Hedwig held a thick padded envelope, from Hermione in his grasp. As she swallowed the last of her meal, her long white wings spread magnificently open ready for the long flight, while her claws pushed off from the window ledge of Hermione's bedroom.

Hermione stared at the bird decreasing in size and turned her back so that she was facing her bed. She moved over to it and fell onto her quilt, that her grandmother had made for her, as a special present for receiving such high marks throughout her school life at Hogwarts. She punched her pillow angry at the thought of not being able to do anything, or outsmart Voldemort, even though she was supposed to be the smartest witch of her time, she couldn't help Harry, and that's what hurt her the most.

She turned around so that she was lying on her back. She let out a strangled breath, and closed her eyes. After a few minutes she sat up and picked up her book about a muggle version of magic. She thought she might be able to get some ideas from muggles. If it was up to her she was consider muggles to be more intelligent than wizards, granted wizards had more power, but she didn't believe the two were the same thing.

She opened to page 34 and took in a deep breath, and started to read until her book fell against her chest and sleep took her to somewhere else.

* * *

When Harry awoke he noticed that Hedwig was sitting on her perch with her head tucked under her wing. An envelope was in her clutch. Harry stretched out and gently prised it out from Hedwig. He blinked rapidly in hope to get rid of some of the sleeplessness from his eyes; he then opened the envelope and pulled out a piece of parchment.Harry 

_Its me-Hermione- how are you? I'm okay at the moment, have you heard from Ron? I got a really weird phone call from him; he obviously hasn't used a phone before, as he almost blew my eardrum out. He said that pig is ill at the moment and that we shouldn't expect any letters, not yet anyway._

_While he was screaming at me he said that we were able to come down to his, you are going, aren't you. Well to be honest I don't think you have much choice, apparently he seemed quite adamant that if you didn't want to come then he would drag you all the way home. And that includes me to. You need people who care about you around, and there is not much chance of getting the love you deceive from the people you live with._

_How is your homework going at the moment? I've done all of mine, and I'm just been doing some extra work to prepare me for this year._

_See you soon_

_Love always_

_Hermione_

Harry slowly folded the letter and placed it inside his fully packed trunk. He had already received his letter from Ron via Hedwig, and packed to be prepared. Ron hadn't mentioned any date, probably due to security reasons, and thought it would be best to be ready. As he sat down on his bed a squeaking sound came that he knew didn't belong and sounded further away. He grabbed his wand and invisibility cloak.

His door was open slightly, and he was able to sneak through the gap. He pressed his back to the wall, walking flat on his feet, knowing that walking on tiptoes would increase pressure, making the chance of making a sound larger. Walking by the wall he knew would have more structure and less likely to make a sound. His spatial sense had increased rapidly and he was seeing weaknesses, and strengths everywhere he looked. Using them to his best advantage. He could already see a group of wizards at the bottom of his stairs.

He walked as light as a feather until he was standing in the circle of wizards, he took in who was there, Remus, Tonks, Dung, and a few others who Harry hadn't met before. He smiled his first smile in a while as a prank filled his mind. It seemed that two of the aurors slowly started to walk up the stairs after putting a spell on their footsteps so they could walk as hard as they wanted but would not be heard.

Harry slowly tipped his wand under his cloak and positioned so that it was facing Remus, then he threw his cloak off so that Remus was meet with a wand in his face.

'Now if I was allowed to perform magic I could have disarmed you, and stunned you all.' Harry said as he lowered his wand.

'Now do you want to explain why you are all here?'

'Do I not get a hello?' Remus said as he smiled at Harry. His eyes were alert and bright, but his skin was pale, and sickly. Harry's mind went back to when the last full moon was, and realised that it had been only a few days ago.

Harry smiled back and wrapped his arms around the older man's shoulders. He clung to him, as he realised that this was the last living marauder left, his last connection to Sirius and his father. He pulled away, and turned to everyone else in the room, the clock in the hallway chimed 6 o'clock in the morning and Harry was interrupted from greeting the people he hadn't met before, by aunt Petunia walking down the stairs, and letting a little scream out of her thin lipped mouth.

'So much for our undercover of getting Harry out here with nobody noticing.' Tonks replied while changing her hair from strawberry ringlets to green plaits.

This made Petunia squeak a little bit more, she obviously hadn't gotten used to Tonks and her ability to change her appearance in an instance. Her pale face disappeared as Petunia turned and ran up the stairs to the safety of her bedroom with her husband.

Harry turned around so that he was properly facing all the aurors who had come to take him away. His mind went back to last year, and that they had flew to Sirius' house; he cringed slightly at the thought of freezing again. But then he realised that he didn't have his broom anymore. Umbridge still had it locked in Hogwarts.

He looked up at Remus in hope that the ban had been lifted.

Remus shook his head slightly when he saw Harry look up at him.

'Sorry Harry, the ban is still there.'

'So how are we going to get out of here? And where are we going?'

'Well we're going to the Weasley's, and we're going to get there by car.'

'Yes and I'm driving, and I'm sorry to break up the reunion, but we need to leave.' Said one of the aurors Harry hadn't met before, he spoke with a slight accent, that Harry thought was from Germany. The man reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out an envelope, with Harry's aunt and uncle's names written on the front. He placed it on the small wooden table in the hallway. Harry was quite impressed that all the aurors had made an effort to where muggle clothes, Tonks looked very feminine in a flowery skirt and sheepskin shoes, some of the others looked a lot toned down, in jeans and sweaters.

When they walked out the door, Harry noticed that the two other aurors had already gotten Harry's trunk and owl, and where starting to put them in the boot of a large estate car.

Harry counted the amount of seats and realised that with eight seats they would all get a seat.

'Okay Harry' said Tonks, 'you get in first you're in the middle seat in the middle row.' Harry sat down and leaned his head against the backrest. Once everyone had gotten into the car, and everyone had put on their seat belts. The German put the car into first gear and pulled out of the curb.

'So, am I going to get to meet everyone?' Whispered Harry to Tonks, who was sitting on his left next to him.

'Oh right, I forgot. Okay introductions people. Now the auror driving the car is called Hansel, but he likes to be known as Hans, he's from Germany, if you didn't know, and one of Dumbledore'svery close friends. That's partly why he's driving, obviously you didn't think we would just transport you in a normal car, did you? Anyway Hans specializes with defensive transport. Its got loads of counter curses and protections on it, but you have to now how to activate them. he's lightening quick, and he usually transports us round now. Okay i'm going of the introduction sorry, the man sitting next to him is called Clyde. You know me, Dung and Remus. And at the back with Dung is Rupert, and Conrad.'

Everyone said hello back to Harry, when Harry greeted them. Harry looked around and it was then that he noticed that almost everyone in the car was male with the exception of Tonks.

Harry turned to her and looked at her and wondered how she remained so feminine with so many male partners.

He voiced his question, and everyone chuckled. 'Well to be honest I have a lot of girl friends, you wouldn't catch me with half of these people outside of my shift. But I know what you mean. We could do with a lot more female aurors. Heck we could just do with a lot more aurors, female or not. Have you not noticed that we are now having to recruit from foreign countries, Hans is from Germany and Conrad is from Greece.'

'Wow, what sort of things do you do in your original countries, is it similar to what you've been doing here?' Harry asked both foreigners.

'Well yes it is pretty similar to what's going on here. I have to say that our ministry is a lot more organised than here.' Conrad said.

'Why what's gone wrong, it wasn't that bad when I last heard about it, sure they totally neglected to tell everyone that Voldemort was at large again, but that a year ago.'

'Well recently the death eaters have started to control their forces on eliminating the ministry, and only a few days ago Fudge was discovered to be murdered. Obviously it hasn't been in the news, not yet anyway, they are still getting over the fact that you know who is at large again, as you put it. Only a few aurors know about it actually, and you now.' Said Remus.

'Oh great.' Harry said as his eyes drooped as his eyes followed the repetitive lines on the road.


	2. One of Life's little mysteries

Chapter Two – One of life's little mysteries

A hooting owl flying around his head rudely awoke Ron.

'I see you feel better' he mumbled to it while trying to put his pillow over his head, although he could no longer see Pig, he could very well hear him. After a few minutes Ron gave up sleeping and sat up roughly in bed. This caused the owl to get even more excited, and then he flew into a small window before becoming dazed and landing on his perch. His perch consisted of some books that had never been opened.

Ron glared angrily at it, before standing up and reaching over to the bottle containing some medicine for his owl. He was under strict instructions that from the pet shop owner to give the owl all the medicine until it was finished. Ron picked up Pig. With his fingers either side of Pig's head to keep him still, he spooned a small amount of the mixture into the small bird's mouth. The bird barely noticing left his owners rasp to fly up to a top shelf, where he put his head under his wing.

Ron shook his head as he struggled to come to terms with how many mood swings his bird had had in such a small space of time. His hair stuck up on ends, and his stripy blue pyjamas were becoming noticeably small o his 6 ft height. He grabbed some trousers and a t-shirt and struggled into them. He made his way down the stairs and stood in front of the clock. His mother was at home, as was Ginny but apart from that everyone was at work.

He made his way into the kitchen and sat down on one of the wooden chairs. He grabbed a piece of warm toast and just started to butter it, when he heard a car pull up in the driveway.

Taking his toast in one hand, he walked through the wooden door past the blossoms of honeysuckle above him just in time to see his mother greeting a cluster of aurors. A smile plastered his face when he saw his best friend looking slightly stiff getting out of the car.

He took long strides until he reached his friend and grabbed him into a manly hug. He released his friend and took a bite of his toast.

'Aya mate, 'ow you?' Ron said while chewing on his breakfast.

'Really Ron, do eat with you mouth closed, and take Harry inside where you can talk over breakfast.' Molly said after watching the interaction between her son and his friend.

Harry walked down the cobbled steps, with moss covering certain parts and through the door. He sat next to Ron and smiled as Molly who had just appeared behind them went to the cooking pan, and switched it off. The smell of bacon, sausages, eggs and mushrooms had already aromatically filled Harry's nostrils and he realised he hadn't eaten since lunch yesterday. He eagerly waited while Molly placed a large helping of everything on his white chipped plate. He grabbed his fork and knife along with Ron and started gulping the food down.

Molly looked at them for a few moments before looking at the aurors who where standing awkwardly in the doorway, except Remus, Tonks and Dung, who had already sat down. She turned to the aurors

'Come in, come in, you don't have to stand there. I'm sure you're all hungry sit down and I'll get you all something to eat, none of you are vegetarian are you?' Molly said worriedly wondering what she could get them if they were. But her prayers were answered when they all replied that they loved meat.

As they walked in and made themselves comfortable, she turned to Ron and Harry.

'You boys can go and finished your breakfast outside if you like, it's a lovely day, just hang on you can finish this lot so I can start a new batch for our visitors. She grabbed the pan and placed a bit more of everything on their plates. Once they had walked out the door, she switched the pan on again and then turned to the aurors.

'So are you ready for the meeting, everyone should be here in a few minutes.' Molly said while a sizzling drowned out her voice.

* * *

'Wonder what that was all about' Said Harry, 'it's obvious that your mum just wanted to talk to the aurors without us there.'

Ron nodded his head while taking another big bite out of his sausage.

'You won't guess what I found out on the way here. Fudge was killed.' Harry said. Ron choked on his mouthful and whacked his chest, once he had calmed down; he looked at Harry with watery eyes and an unbelievable expression.

'What'

'I know, and they haven't even told anyone yet, only a few aurors know about it. What I'm worried about is, if there is no longer a minister of magic, who the bloody hell is running the ministry.' Harry replied. 'God we would do such a better job if we ran the ministry. They can't seem to get anything right. It frustrates me so much' Harry said while grinding his teeth.

'Come on, I think that we should listen in on what they're talking about. Fred left me a whole box of goodies as a leaving present, just so mum wouldn't forget about them, its up in my room. Let go round the back way, we obviously can't go through the kitchen.' Ron told Harry while they finished off their breakfast.

Ron and Harry crept through the house, up the rickety stairs and into Ron's bedroom. Ron got down on the floor and lifted his sheet, which was covering the gap between his bed and the floor. His hand darted in and pulled a cardboard box out. He started to rummage around and finally pulled out a pair of extendable ears.

'Gotcha, come on, hopefully we haven't missed the best bits yet.' Ron said while shoving the box, unceremoniously back under the bed.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs and the kitchen door, Ron placed the ears under the door and put the earpieces near his and Harry's ears.

They were both relieved when they realised that Molly hadn't placed a sealing charm on the door, and they were able to hear everything that was going on.

* * *

Knives and forks could be heard against the plates as people polished off their breakfast.

'I take it that we all agree, but that doesn't really matter what we need is evidence, information. Without that then we could all agree on anything, but it wouldn't matter we need information.' Said Clyde.

'I would have to agree, Severus have us got us any more information.' Dumbledore asked to one of his most trusted friends.

'Yes Albus, I have found that the Dark Lord has recently recruited a lot of half breeds and his numbers have all in fact doubled since our last meeting. It seems that these are the easiest to turn.' Snape stopped when Remus started to growl. He was silenced when Tonks gave him a harsh look and slap on the chest. But he narrowed his eyes as Snape continued his speech.

'The Dark Lord seems to have had an ego boast and given them the freedom to go on a killing spree, what's unusual is that he hasn't been taking part, he's been sitting on the side lines. I think that he's getting some plan worked out in his head.'

'Well at the moment I think we need to concentrate on the increased numbers turning to the dark side, and also this matter about Cornelius being killed.'

'Is it too late to do something on the numbers thing, if they have already turned, do we have time before the war to try and turn all the half breeds back?'

'WHAT, What do you mean, is it to late. Who cares do you think we have any other option.'

'Calm down Molly,'

But Molly wasn't listening, 'And what did you say about before the war, the war is here, we're in the middle of it.' Molly was screaming at the auror that said the comment. He recoiled in his chair as Molly ranted onto him.

'Molly calm down, this is the last thing needed. We need to work together. Now as you all know about Cornelius then we all know that the position for minister is open. We can use this to our advantage. Can the laws, do something we can think about it in more depth later, but until then I think we should suspend this meeting until someone has removed the two young men listening to our meeting outside the hallway door.' Said Moody.

Harry and Ron had been getting more and more absorbed into the debate, until Moody had mentioned them standing there and listening. They scrambled up and leaped up the stairs.

At the same time Ginny was making her way down the stairs rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She gasped when she collided with Harry and Ron. They all fell the few stairs and landed in a heap at the bottom.

The boys groaned when Molly almost tore the door of its hinges. 'We're in trouble now' Ron said when his mum saw the extendable ears lying on the floor.

* * *

Molly's ranting could still be heard throughout the house, and it shook with each syllable of her lecture. Once she had let them go they made it up to Ron's bedroom and fell on their beds.

'Well that went well, I think' Ron said.

'I didn't think she could shout so loud.' Harry said while rubbing his ears.

'Yes well you haven't lived with her for 16 years. You kind of get use to it. But at least now she isn't screaming at us for any particular reason. She's kind of focused her energy towards the older lot. She's been pestering them to get married and have children. You might have noticed that's why there aren't really any more people here. Bill, Charlie, Fred and George have all deserted us for this time. The twins come back only for food. But the conversation goes to children almost the second they've entered. I'll be free of that for maybe a few years then I'll probably have to go. I can't stand children.'

Harry chuckled and asked Ron a question 'So when is Hermione getting here?'

'Should be this afternoon, some time I dunno exactly when though.' Just then Pig seemed to have woken up from his sleep up on the roof and started to hoot and zoom around the room.

'Merlin, this bird, its gone mad, completely bonkers.' Ron said gritting his teeth and standing up trying to grab the bird. Pig flew straight at Harry, and he had to dive out the way so he didn't get a bunch full of feathers in his mouth. Then just as suddenly Pig changed course of direction and flew straight out the open window.

'Has it been like that the whole summer?' Harry asked as they both stared as Pig flew straight up to the roof of the house.

'Yep pretty much, he was fine the first few weeks and then suddenly he changed and now he has worse mood swings than when women get their women problems.' Said Ron shaking his head in disbelief. And with that they headed downstairs for lunch


	3. Trust makes the world go round

Chapter three – Trust makes the world go round

Hermione laid one of her shirts on top of her trunk and closed the lid. She took her wand from the top of her chest of drawers and placed it in her coat, even though she wasn't allowed to use magic, keeping her wand with her made her feel safer and being July the weather was at its hottest, which caused Hermione to unzip her jacket.

She took the trunk by the handle on the edge and began to drag it downstairs. The weight was bearable with the new spells placed on the crate, and she pulled it into the car with minimum effort.

She walked around the car and opened the back door. Her mother turned around in the front passenger seat and smiled a comforting smile to Hermione.

'All set darling?' her mother said while buckling herself into the seat.

'Yes, I think I've packed everything I'm going to need.' Crookshanks was also in the backseat and padded over towards her. Settling into Hermione's lap, the cat closed its drooping eyelids and began to sleep.

Hermione was heading towards Ron's house, and she was becoming very excited about seeing both Ron and Harry. Especially Harry. Out of the three friends, she being the only female found she had to worry for the equivalent of three people. She knew that Ron cared about Harry, but they both knew their roles, and his was not the worrier.

She closed her eyes knowing her responsibility towards Harry, and with that she drifted off into sleep.

* * *

When Hermione woke up she noticed at once that the usual urban settings around her had dissolved into hills and valleys. She sat up slightly and ran her hands through her hair. She had risked leaving it down, partly because it had calmed down, and because her mother had commented on how much prettier she looked with her loose curls. Leaving it loose, her hair came to her mid back, and her mother stated that it had probably calmed down because it was so long, and weighed the hair down pulling her frizz out.

Hermione respected her mother immensely. She was a person Hermione had always looked up to. Hermione also believed that it was from her mother that she received her intelligence. Sure her father was bright, but he was the comical one out of her parents. The most prominent thing about her father though was his ability to know when something was wrong. He had often joked about him having more female intuition than her mother.

She smiled when she noticed the cottage coming into view with the numerous chimneys. When the car slowed to a stop, Hermione had already wrenched open the door and had scrambled out. She ran up the stone pathway and knocked on the door. She jumped from side to side, fidgeting to see her best friends. Her parents were slowly getting out the car, glancing at their surroundings.

* * *

Molly Weasley wiping her hands on a dishcloth opened the door opened. Her eyes widened in surprise and she pulled Hermione into a giant hug. Hermione smiled and hugged back. When she pulled back she noticed that her parents were making their way up the pathway.

'You go on inside, Hermione. The boys are upstairs. Come on in David, Emma. I'm sure after your long journey you could do with a cup of tea.' Molly said.

Hermione ran up the stairs while her parents got comfortable in the kitchen with Molly. Hermione ran along the landing, and came in front of Ron's door. She took a deep breath, smiled thinking of how important the boys were to her. She raised her hand and knocked.

'Go away Ginny we are not interested in what ever you want, come and tell us when Hermione arrives.' Ron's voice could be heard through the door.

Hermione grasped the door handle and opened, she put her head through and smiled as she saw Harry and Ron lying on beds. They turned and looked at her. Ron was the first up and was hugging her tightly. She was small compared to him, and found her head came to his chest. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on his check. When she was released she turned to Harry who was standing close by. She walked up to him and he pulled her into him. Harry wasn't as tall as Ron but she could just about rest her head on his shoulder. His skin felt rougher and she released that he had stubble growing. She took a deep breath of his scent before turning her head and kissing him on the check. She liked the way his skin felt against her soft lips and wondered why she was thinking like this. When they departed they all walked back to the beds and sat down. Hermione lay across Ron's while the boys sat on Harry's.

'So how has your summer been so far?' Hermione asked. Looking at both Harry and Ron.

'Fine, Dad won another prize at the ministry about time I think. Plus hopefully he will apply to be the minister of magic.' Ron said.

'Why would he apply, what's happened to Fudge?' Hermione asked. The boys spent the next few minutes describing what they knew about the death of Fudge. By the end, Hermione looked close to tears, and the boys glanced at each other.

'Umm, Hermione are you alright.' Ron asked.

'Yeah I'm just worried. About Voldemort increasing in size, its going to make everything even harder for us now, and both of you are going to be in even more danger than usual. I'm frightened about what he could do to you.' Hermione said in a shaky voice.

'Hey we're going to be fine, he's never gotten us before, and after what happened last time, I'm less in a rush to jump into situations.' Harry said, while looking at Hermione. Hermione got up and sat between her best friends.

'He's never going to separate us, even if he tries. We have something he will never have, we have love.' Ron said, both Harry and Hermione looked at Ron. 'Hey I can be serious sometimes.' They all laughed and the three felt complete now that they had their friends with them.

* * *

A while later all three went down the stairs and walked into the kitchen. Hermione's parents were still there. They looked up and smiled at the trio.

'Do you want your trunk Hermione, Molly has kindly allowed us to stay for dinner so we'll be here a little longer and then I think it will be time to get back.' Hermione's mother said, while finishing of her tea.

'That was a wonderful cup of tea, Molly. What ingredients did you use, because it really satisfied me.' Her father said.

Molly looked slightly embarrassed. 'Oh thank you David, I used half Earl Grey and half green tea, it complements each other brilliant, don't you think Emma?' Mrs Weasley asked.

Ron grabbed both his friends' underarms and dragged them out of the kitchen and into the garden.

'We'd be there for ages if I hadn't saved you. Mum can talk for wizards about food, and drinks.' Ron said dramatically. 'What do you guys want to do?'

'Well its four now, so we have a few hours before dinner.' Said Hermione. Her body was starting to feel the heat of the afternoon sun, and she started to fan herself.

'I think Hermione is hot.' Said Ron. Both Hermione and Harry looked at run with a shock on their face. 'I mean the weather is making her hot, as in temperature.' He said ignoring their expressions 'Why don't we go swimming, there's a lake down the garden, its quite small but its nice if you want to cool off.'

'How come we never heard about this before?' Harry asked Ron as they made their way back to cottage.

'Oh it was overgrown and mum swore that she wanted to sort the bottom of the garden out. She did it this year and found the small lake.'

'Wow.' Hermione said 'I'll meet you in the house in a few minutes I'm just going to go and get my swimming costume and trunk.' Hermione headed towards the car and the boys went into the house.

* * *

Hermione carried her trunk up the stairs and headed towards Ginny's room. She knocked on the door and heard a muffled voice come from inside. Hermione screwed her eyebrows up in concentration of why Ginny would be unable to speak clearly. She opened the door to find the legs of Ginny sticking out from beneath her bed.

'What are you doing down there.' Hermione asked wearily as Ginny wriggled out and stood up. Her red hair was covered in dust and untidy. Her response was to sneeze releasing a large amount of dust from her clothes.

'I was just trying to find something but its not anywhere. I've search everywhere in this room, which is where it would be, and its not here.' Hermione looked around the room and wondered how Ginny could even find anything in here. Clothes lay scattered around and there was hardly any floor visible to the eye.

'What you looking for?' Hermione asked while walking to Ginny and started brushing the dusst out of her hair, she then gave her girlfriend a hug and kiss on the check before walking over a pile of clothes and sat on her bed that she would be sleeping in. She turned and started rummaging around in her trunk for the swimsuit she had brought in preparation for summer at Hogwarts.

'I was looking for this book on potions and its nowhere. Snape decided to be nice and give us a project of 15 feet parchment all about the difference of stirring potions clockwise and anticlockwise. 15 feet, that's why I've started now, or I'm trying to but the book that I need I can't find.' Ginny said sarcastically. She looked at Hermione and wondered why she was getting her swimming costume on. 'Why are you wearing your swimming costume?'

'We're going swimming in that lake your mum found, you can come along if you like. And I've got a large selection of books just about stirring. They're really interesting. You can borrow them if you like?'

Ginny had already picked her swimming suit from a pile of clothes near the door and was starting to change. 'What do you think?' Ginny said while showing Hermione her bikini.

'Its very revealing isn't it.' Hermione replied, not really expecting an answer.

'And what, yours isn't. You're showing just as much cleavage as me. More probably seeing, as boobs are bigger than mine. It's not fair I'm literally flat, and yours are the perfect size, what man will resist you.'

'Oh you're just being silly, you are definitely, not flat. You must be a B at least. And that last comment, we'll just ignore because we both know the reality. You are much more popular than me.'

'Fine okay I am a B, but the only reason I'm more popular is because I'm not afraid to be daring. I'm spontaneous; I do things on the spur of the moment. But hey you are popular with my brother and Harry. Would you rather have 2 really good friends or loads of people who you know nothing about?'

'I would rather just have Ron and Harry.' Hermione said and knew it was the truth. 'I wouldn't change a single thing' and with that the girls went in search of the boys.


	4. Passion down by the water's edge

Chapter four – Passion down by the water's edge

The four teenagers walked down the garden barefooted. The grass tickled their toes and in some areas it crunched beneath their feet. When they reached the lake they all dropped their towels and got ready to jump in.

Ginny grabbed onto the ground and dipped her toe into the water.

'Its really nice. Come on' and with that she jumped into it. Her head broke the surface when she came up. Ginny's red hair sparkled in the sunlight and stuck to her head. The hair that was so long and still in the water swam around beside her shoulders. Ron was the next in, and when he surfaced, he splashed Harry and Hermione.

'Right that's it, you're getting it, Mr. Weasley.' Hermione said while spluttering from the water that had entered her mouth. She grabbed Harry's arm and they both jumped into the water.

Harry felt the water touch his body, and came up with a cluster of air bubbles. His hair stuck to the side of his face, and a few loose tendrils, that were hanging infront of his eyes, interrupted his view.

Hermione pushed her hair back from her eyes and wiped her face to get rid of the excess water. Ginny had been right, the water was pleasant, and they all found that they cooled down quite soon after entering it.

Even though the lake was small, the depth ranged from shallow to deep. While the teenagers were in an area deep enough to stand in up to the middle of their chests they decided to play a game.

'You wanna play volleyball, or something.' Ron asked the three others.

'Yeah okay,' said Harry 'whose going to get the ball?'

'I'll go, I need the toilet.' Ginny said while getting out the lake. You can choose teams.'

Ginny had already run off in search of a ball, and Hermione wondered whose team she would be on.

'I want Hermione, you can have Ginny.' Harry said after grabbing Hermione around her middle, to claim her as his.

'Fine, but you're going down.' Ron said with a movement of his thumbs moving towards the surface of the water.

'Whatever.' Hermione said, and turned Harry around so that they were facing away from Ron, 'Why on earth did you choose me, you know how bad I am at sports.' Hermione hissed at Harry, her check pressed into his.

Harry couldn't answer why he had chosen Hermione, it had been the spur of the moment, but he was glad he had. He was also struggling to answer the question because she was so close to him. His arm was still wrapped around her middle, and he could smell her scent coming of her in waves of vanilla and flowers.

'You do realise that we're going to lose now, its going to be them two against you, because I can't play these games. You've just doomed yourself.'

'I don't care if we lose, I want you as my partner.' Harry said, and turned Hermione around with minimum effort.

By now Ginny had returned clutching a ball, and had launched herself into the lake.

'I guess I'm with Ron then.' Ginny said while raising her eyebrow up at Hermione. She mouthed 'later we talk' at Hermione, so discreetly that neither the boys noticed.

* * *

The game was wellunderway with Ron and Ginny, in the lead by 13 points.

'Admit it Harry, I told you I was rubbish,' Hermione said to Harry while she attempted to hit the ball that had just been slammed across the water by Ginny.

'Nope, I would still rather have had you than either of them. Even if you were rubbish, which you're not.' Harry said as he slammed the ball back across, to be awarded with a point. 'See we've just got a point, we wouldn't have got it, if you hadn't have been here.'

'Fine, you're just being nice, and that point was actually nothing to do with me, but it doesn't matter, at least we're having fun, that's the main thing isn't it?'

'Yep' Harry said after dunking down to cool off. His torso had become dry and hot with the temperature and immersing in the water soothed his skin.

'I feel like stopping' Ron said, 'I think it was fair to say we won,'

'Yeah I suppose so.' Said Hermione. 'I think I'm going to get out, I've cooled down a lot since this afternoon, and the weather seems to be getting a little cooler.' Hermione walked over to Harry and hugged him, 'Thanks for being my partner, even if we lost. But we played well' Harry said to Hermione.

Hermione's skin was warm with the sun beating down on it all afternoon. As she got out of the lake, she grabbed her towel and started to wipe her legs down. The others had already started getting out, but Harry was paralysed with the image in front of him. Hermione had the setting sun behind her and loose rays came through her hair and past her body. He was slightly dazzled by the look and struggled looking at her.

He turned away fearing they would all see him redden, and dunked back under the water again, to hide from view. He thought about what he had just seen, and realised how angelic she had looked. When he came up again, he noticed that Ron and Ginny had disappeared and Hermione was standing there with his towel in hand.

'You coming?' Hermione asked, 'Ron and Ginny are desperate for food, and have gone to see whether dinner's ready.'

Harry clambered out of the lake, and took the towel from Hermione's hand. He quickly dried himself off and wrapped it round his lower half. Even having trunks on, Harry still felt slightly tense having such little clothing on near Hermione.

Hermione who had been use to looking closely without attracting attention, immediately noticed Harry tense up. She reached her hand over and touched his shoulder. He jumped slightly and Hermione burrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

'What's wrong Harry? Why are you so tense?' Hermione asked while slowly rubbing his shoulder. She tried to settle the butterflies that were moving around in her stomach, due to touching his skin. It was still slightly wet, and felt like a lubricant between her skin and his. She could feel his shoulder muscles contracting and relaxing slightly under her touch as they pushed against his skin.

Harry tried to make an excuse about why he was so tense, he couldn't exactly tell her the truth. So he came up with the next good reason, he missed Sirius

'I'm just missing Sirius,' Harry said, and once he said it, he actually felt worse, the memories of Sirius came back and he struggled to take a regular breath. He had slowly been getting back to reality and had shut the loss of Sirius away deep in his heart. He hadn't brought it up, until now and with bringing something he had tried for so long to shut away, temporarily brought down his defences that he had spent so long fabricating.

Hermione stopped and turned Harry towards her, he looked down, not wanting to see pity in her eyes. He loved her eyes but he didn't want to see the pity. Hermione's lip quivered and she launched herself into his arms. Harry shocked quickly grabbed her before she fell through his arms. Her petite structure was held between his two arms, while she had hers clutched around his neck. Her head buried in his neck as she mentally scolded herself. It was Harry who needed the comforting, but she had forced him to comfort her.

Harry quickly relaxed with Hermione in his arms, and placed his head in her neck and hair, he deeply breathed the scent in. The smell almost forced his eyes to roll back in their socket as he suppressed a moan. That was when he realised just how close they were pinned together and he could feel certain areas strongly. He could easily say that his mind was definitely now off Sirius.

His neck suddenly felt cold and he seemed to slightly snap out of some sort of daze he had been under. He wished she would put him back under whatever spell she had hypnotised him with.

She looked at him and he found he had to look. Their eyes met, green meeting brown. But it was more than that. Hermione found herself looking into his almond shaped eyes. She was so close that she could see the line that separated his green from the white. She could see the green had different shades making her look at depth. Harry found that he saw gold specs scattered around in her brown orbs. Her eyes hidden behind a thick layer of eyelashes accentuated her femininity. The area round her black pupil was lined with a thin layer of the colour dark chocolate. Harry hadn't noticed how in captivating her eyes were, and found he couldn't tear his gaze away. Both their heads slowly leaning forward, involuntarily, until they both slowly lowered their lids so they could see each other's lips. When they touched, Harry could see multiple colours behind his lids, he could feel her soft lips full and pushing against his. Hermione's butterflies had flown up towards her heart and were plummeting again. She moved her lips millimetres away from Harry's so she let in a deep breath. When she breathed out she crashed her lips against Harry's again.

Harry had felt disorientated when she had removed her lips, but his mouth opened slightly when he felt her breath on his skin, it slowly made its way into his mouth and he swallowed it before she had placed him back under her spell. He slowly opened his mouth and she responded straight away.

Harry didn't know what to do, he had only kissed Cho last year, and that had been a disaster. But he found once he opened his mouth, he slowly pushed his tongue into her mouth and was greeted with an electric shock feeling her tongue against his.

Both feeling slightly breathless drew away slowly; still standing shakily inches away from each other. When they opened their eyes, Hermione had pictured this scene to have been awkward, with both of them trying to avoid each other's eyes. But the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was Harry's.

They both had a smile on their face, and each took a deep breath in.

'Hermione' Harry said seriously, 'I want to tell you that for quite a while now I have had feelings about you, um' Harry said turning nervous 'would you like, um like to go out with me, I mean do you want to go out with me.' Hermione's eyes widen and her smile got even bigger.

'You serious?' Hermione said glancing at different eyes.

'I've never been more serious than I have now, Hermione. Do you want to be my girlfriend?' gaining in confidence

'I've been waiting for this moment for ages now, Harry and nothing in the world is going to make me say no.' with that she pressed her lips to his to seal the deal, and grabbed Harry's hand, 'we better get back, they're going to wonder what we've been doing all this time.' She suddenly stopped and turned to Harry. Harry was worried, because she looked apprehensive, 'What should we tell them?'

'Why don't we tell them tonight, after dinner we can sit them down and tell them, until then, we're going to have to act normal. You now how Ron acts, he'll be jealous if he finds out before we tell him.'

'Yes you're right.' Hermione said, and her smiled immediately came back on.

Walking hand and hand they entered through the kitchen door, with their smiles reaching their eyes.

'Why are you so happy?' Ginny asked staring at Hermione and Harry, and then noticing their entwined hands gasped. She grabbed Ron's lower arm, and Hermione's, dragging Harry along. Harry and Hermione looked at each other, and realised that their little discussion might have to come before dinner.


	5. Goodbye is never forever

Chapter five – Goodbye is never forever

'Why are you dragging us upstairs?' Ron mumbled at Ginny, who had his arm in a vice like grip. Trying to escape her digging nails, she just grabbed on harder. When they all got to the top of the landing, Ginny shoved Ron into his bedroom, and pushed the other two in. Once she entered she closed the door, and turned around with her hands on her hips.

'When exactly were you planning on telling Ron and me?' Ginny said looking at Hermione and then Harry who had sat down on Harry's bed.

'Tell us what?' Ron asked confused, 'What did I miss?'

'Yes, do tell us Hermione, what did we miss?' Ginny said sarcastically.

'Calm down, Ginny. We were planning on telling both of you after dinner. But you obviously saw straight through us.' Said Harry slightly defensively. He turned to Ron, and said 'Look mate just now, literally' looking at Ginny and then back, 'Hermione and me have decided to start going out. We hope you're going to accept it.' They all looked at Ron, to be honest Hermione had been the most worried about Ron's reaction, he tended to react without thinking, and had a very hot tempered.

However Ron simply, shrugged his shoulders. 'About time, I say, everyone in our year has been predicting when it would happen, Lavender said that with her divination skills she was planning on narrowing it down to a date. Actually I'm kinda pleased it means that I get my 10 galleons from Neville.'

'What you had a bet on about our relationship?' Hermione said, unsure what to feel.

'Oh no, I wasn't the only one; half the school was doing it. I think Dumbledore might have even taken part in it. You do realise that you're going to have to announce it to the school. Otherwise people will miss out on their cash.'

The only one who hadn't spoken was Ginny, but she was still standing by the door and unreadable expression on her face. Hermione had noticed and slowly stood up, Harry looked while she stood up, because his body missed the presence of hers against his.

'Come on Ginny,' she said and slowly turned Ginny out of the room, and they walked to her room. 'Ginny I'm really sorry you worked it out, I didn't want you to find out like you did, I wanted to tell you.'

'Its okay, I suppose. It's obvious that he fancies you, it all of his face, and yours.' She took a deep breath. Inside Ginny felt rotten. She felt like her friends had punched her in the stomach, her throat felt dry, she just wanted to sit down and think for a bit. This wasn't what was supposed to happen. Her body was shaking, trying to hold the tears in, hold her posture. She fell onto her bed, and brought her knees up. She couldn't blame Hermione. Ginny had always put her friends before herself, and this was exactly the same, Hermione deserved him, and he deserved her. It was as simple as that.

Hermione saw the pain in her friend's eyes, and the way she held herself. Hermione hated the way she had made Ginny feel. She walked over the pile of clothes and sat on the edge, next to her quiet friend.

'I'm sorry Ginny. If there –' Hermione began, feeling the need to explain, or try to console her friend.

'It's okay, Hermione, I'm not angry; you two deserve to be together. I kind of guessed downstairs, but I suppose that I wanted to be wrong, when you two admitted it, I was in shock. I'm sorry, I don't want you to think that I'm jealous, or anything, and I am really pleased about it, it's just going to take a while to get use to. You understand?'

'Yes, I understand, and thanks for accepting it, it really means a lot to me.'

Ginny looked at her friend, and could see the happiness that shined in her eyes. She lifted her arms and wrapped them around Hermione.

The two friends hugged each other for several minutes, both finding strength and solace from the hug. When they broke apart, they both had tears sitting in the corners of their eyes.

They laughed and wiped them away for each other. Ginny sobered slightly, and looked at Hermione, 'Friends?' she said, Hermione glanced at her and smiled,

'Always.'

Ginny stood up and took Hermione's hand, 'come on, dinner should be ready now, I'm starving, doing all that water sport has really emptied my stomach.'

* * *

When they walked into the kitchen Molly had began serving the food, and round the table sat, Mr Weasley, Mr and Mrs Granger, Harry and Ron.

Hermione sat down next to Harry and Ginny sat next to her. 'Everything okay?' Harry said lightly looking Hermione with concern.

'Yeah it is now.' She said while she squeezed his leg to try to emphasise her point.

* * *

'NO, really how does that work?' came from the position at the end of the table, where a very animated Mr. Weasley sat staring at Mr. Granger. Mr. Granger seemed slightly shocked from the mature man's outcome, but swallowed it and began on explaining about pocketknives.

Mr. Weasley's mouth was slightly agar, as the muggle explain how a small instrument could perform up to 50 jobs. He held in a squeal when the man produced one out of his coat jacket,

'They're really useful, look this is a bottle opener, this bit is a knife, and there's some scissors here…' Mr Granger said while pulling all the pieces out, by the time he finished there were gadgets spread out, originating from the red handle.

'Molly, have you _seen _this?' Arthur said while holding it in his hand looking at in awe.

'It's lovely Arthur.' She said when glancing at it. She handed out the plates, and then used magic to move the food onto the table. 'Help yourself, everyone' she said.

Mr. Weasley handed the contraption back to David, and tucked into some potatoes, while staring at him while folding it all back up again. He shock his head in disbelief, 'its amazing how such a small thing can hold loads of uses.'

'This isn't the only one you can get, this is a relatively basic one, some have hundreds of uses, depends what you want it to specialise in.'

'I am going to have to get one, they're amazing.' David smiled, and tucked into a piece of chicken.

Suddenly there were two pop and two males appeared in the kitchen. They both wore red hair, a famous trait of the Weasley family.

'Fred, George. You've decided to visit; it's lovely to see you. Come, sit. You can tell us all about how the business.' Molly said while getting up to hug her boys. She fetched two plates and placed them in a free space. The two men sat down and tucked into an assortment of food.

Ron and Harry glanced at each other, amazed that they had arrived just when the food had begun to flow. Obviously they were trying to spend as little time as possible, so they could reduce the chance of the topic children coming up.

As Molly settled down to carry on eating, the twins started to talk about the business.

'Well business is blooming, we've just staring to expand, and we've got a lab to test all our inventions in. The place is becoming too small to hold everything; we've decided to move to Hogsmeade as well. Business is going really good. It just proves what we always believed.' Fred said, while scooping some of mash potato onto his chicken and stuffing it into his mouth.

'What did you believe in that you proved?' Ron said through a mouthful of peas.

'Ron, shut your mouth while you're eating.' Molly said, shaking her head lightly wondering where she had gone wrong with her youngest son.

'Well Ronniekins, it just happens to prove how much people like pranks and mischief, our sales have continuously increased throughout the time we've been open.' Ron glared at his brother at the use of his childhood nickname

'And now that it's the holiday, we should be expecting even more business.' George said to finish his brother's speech.

'Well it looks like you've settled down in your career –' Molly began, but saw the look her husband gave her. She quietened down feeling disappointed to bring up the topic of children and settling down in other areas of their lives.

Everyone focused on their eating and looked down to avoid the awkward atmosphere that had seemed to have suddenly fallen around the wooden table.

* * *

When everyone had finished his or her meal, Mr. Granger licked his lips.

'That was a lovely meal, Molly.' He said while his wife nodded in agreement. He looked out the window, to see the sun lying on the horizon. 'But I'm afraid we're going to have to call it a night, we have a fair journey to go and we don't want to be out all night.'

'It was lovely to see you Molly, we'll come and visit again, and thank you very much for letting Hermione stay here for the rest of the summer. She was desperate to see her friends again.' Emma laughed trying to keep the tears at bay. Her husband noticed and wrapped his arm around her petite shoulders.

'Thank you again for dinner,' and when he turned to Arthur he said, 'I'll bring some other unusual things by, next time we come and visit, if you like?'

'Would you? That would brilliant, I can't wait. We can come up and see you, it'll only take several seconds, it would save you the journey.' Arthur said, already planning on visiting David.

The two males shook hands, and the women embraced in a hug. When they pulled away, Hermione followed her parents out the front door.

* * *

Her father unlocked the door, and turned to see his only daughter cuddling his wife. Emma kissed Hermione on her check, and smooths her brown hair behind her ears. She'd given up holding the tears back, as they rolled down her checks.

'I'm going to miss you sweetie, please write to us regularly when your at Hogwarts I want to know everything that's going on, you hear me?'

Hermione nodded, feeling her heart break slightly. This was the hardest part of being a witch, the long time away from her parents. Her eyes changed from looking at her mother to her father. He walked up to the two women and hugged them both.

Slowly after several minutes they broke apart and Hermione stood back slightly as her parents settled in for the long journey back home. As David put the car into first gear, he looked into the rear view mirror and struggled to hold back a sob, as he saw her standing out on the dirt ground. Tears streamed down her face at the thought of not seeing her parents for at least 5 months. To be honest Hermione was crying her grief, at the thought of losing them. She knew it was a very pessimistic thought, but with the rise of death eater activity, and the war heavily on them, she knew that her parents were very near the top of the list that Voldemort wanted dead. They were muggles, and parents of Harry Potter's girlfriend.

She felt a strong arm wrap around her shoulders and any resistance she had had disappeared, as she almost fell into Harry's body. She turned around and cried into his chest. Harry stood there as he held her close while stroking her hair, trying to sooth her.

'I can't lose them.' She whispered into Harry's shirt, 'I can't.' Harry closed his eyes as he looked up,.

'You won't. You'll never lose them.' He said, holding her close as they swayed well after the sun had set.


	6. Results lead to Results

Chapter Six – Results leads to Results

The next day, Hermione woke with a stiff back and a numb arm. She moved her hand to try to get the circulation back into her fingers, and looked around the room. Ginny was still asleep her back facing Hermione with shallow breaths Hermione knew it would probably be a while longer before Ginny woke up.

Unlike Ginny, Hermione was an early bird and was rarely up after 8. Hermione removed the thin cotton sheet she had been sleeping with and dropped her legs over the side of the bed. Wriggling her toes she put them into her fuzzy slippers and ran her hand through her hair.

Hermione picked some clothes out of her trunk and put them on. She was able to see quite well, as the morning sun had already risen and was peeping through the cotton curtains that couldn't quite reach together.

Once she was dressed and had ran a brush through her hair, she padded cross the creaky floor, hoping not to wake Ginny. She reached the door and slowly opened it. Carefully manuring around it and then pulling it shut quietly. She nearly yelped when she felt someone grab her sides.

Hermione jumped and wheeled around to come face to face with Harry. She placed her hand on her chest and she took deep breaths. Once she had calmed down, her face, hardened and she playfully slapped Harry on the chest,

'Never do that again, you scared me.' Hermione hissed trying to be quiet. She grabbed Harry's hand and dragged him away from Ginny's door.

As they were walking down the stairs she said, 'I was trying to not wake Ginny, why did you surprise me like that anyway?'

But instead of getting an answer, Harry who had been letting Hermione drag him downstairs stopped her and took her in his arms. He looked in her eyes before softly kissing her. Hermione sighed against his lips and manovered her arms around his neck. Her fingers entered his hair, pulling him closer to her.

Hermione still had butterflies in her stomach, and she felt just as overwhelmed by this kiss as their first. She felt her back hit the wall behind her and slowly felt Harry's body touch hers.

They heard people downstairs rushing about and regretfully pulled apart. Saliva still joined them until Harry licked his lips.

'Good morning gorgeous.' Harry said into her ear, and pecked her there. Hermione smiled and turned to look Harry in the eye.

'Morning, how did you sleep?' She asked, as they started to make their way down the stairs again.

'Good, what about you?'

'Yeah, I slept well. Is Ron awake?'

'Yeah, he's in the kitchen. What'd you wanna do today?'

'I dunno, we could go to Diagon Alley. I need some more stuff.'

'Good plan, we'll see if any of the others want to go.' When they walked into the kitchen, they noticed Ron had already started breakfast. They all sat down and had just started helping themselves, when Hedwig sailed through the window.

'Hello girl,' Harry said and fed her a piece of toast while he got the newspaper that she had in her grasp. He looked at the front cover to see quite a recent picture of Cornelius Fudge.

He scanned the front to see that the news of Fudge's death was now in the paper. 'About time' Harry thought, as he through the paper into the middle of the table. Also on the table were four letters addressed to the youngest four currently living at The Burrow.

'Apparently Dumbledore came and gave these to Mum, this morning' Ron said, 'He's not trusting owls to send them. Delivered them personally.' Ron said while handing them out.

Hermione slowly lifted the flap open and pulled out a piece of parchment.

Dear Miss Granger 

_Congratulations on entering sixth year. You have been chosen to become a prefect again, this year. There will be more prefects this year, due to rise in death eater activities, we will be assigning double the amounts of prefects._

_Following last year, you took your O.W.L.S, here as follows your results:_

_Defence against Dark Arts – O_

_Potions – O_

_Care of magical creatures – O_

_History of magic – O_

_Arithmancy – O_

_Transfiguration – O_

_Charms – O_

_Herbology – O_

_Ancient Runes – O_

_Astrology – O_

_Well done on achieving the highest possible marks. Please write back with the subjects you wish to carry on with for your N.E.W.T.S. Maximum 5 subjects, please choose wisely, as these will affect your career options_

_Yours sincerely_

_Professor Dumbledore_

_Headmaster of Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry_

Hermione looked at the expressions of Ron and Harry,

'What did you two get?' she asked.

'I got 2 O's in Defence, and Care of Magical Creatures. Transfiguration, Herbology and Charms I got Exceeds Expectations, and an acceptable in History of Magic, Astrology and Divination. And…. My God' he said looking up, 'I got an O in Potions, how did that happen?' Harry looked around trying to understand that one of his worse subjects; he got the highest possible mark.

'It was probably because Snape wasn't there. Well done Harry, I'm so proud of you,' Hermione said and leaned in and kissed him,

'Hey guys I am here you know?' Ron said trying not to look at his friends. They broke apart, and Hermione asked how Ron had done.

'Well I got an O in Defence, and E.E in Charms, Transfiguration, Care of Magical Creatures and Potions, and A in Herbology, Astrology, Divination and History of Magic. God I'm pleased with that. I don't know whether I'll be able to become an auror though. You did hear that Snape only accepts O's, and I need Potions to become an auror.'

'You never know, Tonks said that they're desperate for aurors, so I bet that the requirements will go down. You'll be fine.' Harry said.

'God look at me, actually wanting to get into Snape's class.'

Hermione smiled, and told them what she got.

'Well we were kinda expecting you to pass with Outstanding.' Ron said.

'Hey guys, I'm also a prefect.' Harry said while reading his letter again. 'Probably want more prefects to patrol the halls.'

'What, that's brilliant. What subjects do you think you're going to choose?' Ron said.

'I don't know, Defence, Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, and something else. I don't know which though. What about you two?' Harry said while glancing over at his two friends.

'Well, I'm definetly going to do Defence, Potions, Transfiguration, Charms and Arithmancy. I would love to take more, but after third year, I don't' want to wear myself away.' Hermione said.

* * *

A loud whooshing sound came from the grate in the fireplace. An elderly man stepped out and casually brushed off the soot. He noticed three teenagers sitting round the table in the kitchen. They looked up when he had come, wondering why their headmaster was visiting them.

'Hello Sir, how can we help you?' Hermione asked Professor Dumbledore.

'Well I wanted to know your options of subjects. I thought coming to get them would be safer than sending them to us through post.'

It turned out that Ron was able to take potions, apparently much to Snape displeasure. It became apparent that they all had chosen the four main subjects, with Hermione doing Arithmancy, Harry doing Astrology and Ron doing Herbology.

'I believe there is a congratulations in order, for all of you doing tremendous in your O.W.L.S, and also for all becoming prefects.' Dumbledore said.

They all looked up when they saw Molly rush into the kitchen, her apron slightly, twisted. Her red hair showed signs of grey and frizzy areas had abandoned her bun. She smiled at all of them and sat down at the table nursing a cup of tea.

'Please sit down Albus,' she then turned to the three teenagers, and eagerly waited for something.

'Well?' She said, 'How did you do.' And the rest of the morning was spent talking about how they had all done.


	7. I bruise easily

Chapter Seven – I bruise easily.

* * *

'Alright kids lets get going, Albus gave you the list of subjects you're going to need didn't he?'

'Yes mum,' Ginny muttered. She had also received her letter, but this year was her O.W.L.S year. She was grateful that her brother had finished his exams. She would be able to reuse his books, which fortunately would save her parents a lot of money.

'Right we are going to floo, you all know how to, so lets go.' Molly said, more to herself than the others.

Ron grabbed a pinch of the green powder stepped into the grate and threw the powder in. 'Diagon Alley.' He shouted. Ron disappeared; Ginny got in and repeated the process.

'Right come on you two.' Molly said. Hermione got in, she shouted out where she wanted to go.

Hermione whizzed along the different gates, she was pulled towards one gate in particular and floomed out of the fireplace. She stood up and slowly rubbed her lower back, which she had landed on. The fireplace suddenly became illuminated as Harry floomed through. He flew straight into Hermione, who suddenly fell over him. Harry looked up to see Hermione's face inches from his.

'Hey gorgeous,' Harry whispered lightly.

'Ow' Hermione said. Harry looked at Hermione in concern.

'What's wrong?' he said, smoothing her hair behind her ears.

'I hate flooing, and I landed on my lower back and then I bumped into you. And it hurt.' Hermione narrowed her eyes when Harry got a devious look on his face, her eyes widen slightly when she felt his hand move lower towards the pain.

'Excuse me, we are in public, you might want to get up, before everyone guesses that you two are going out.' Ron muttered while helping his friends up. Once they had moved out of the way, Molly suddenly appeared.

'Sorry I realised I didn't have my bags. We can go now. Now Ginny you need new robes, so we'll go there and I need to get more ingredients. We should meet up in a couple of hours, how about noon.'

'Yeah sure, see ya later.' Ron said and the trio walked out of the leaky cauldron.

'Right shall we go and get our books?' Harry said. Hermione smiled at Harry and linked her arm in his.

'Oh Merlin, is it going to be like this all the time?' Ron muttered.

'Well we're just going to have to find you someone, Ron' Harry said looking over his shoulder.

They walked towards 'Flourish and Blotts. Harry opened the door, letting the little tinkering bell that hovered above the door ring. They all walked in and headed towards the different rows of hundreds of books.

They all had their lists, and soon found themselves searching for the books that were present. Harry suddenly stopped.

'Oh, I totally forgot. I've got to go and get some money out of Gringotts. Does anyone want to come?' Harry said.

'Oh, I'll come. I haven't been in the cells at Gringotts before.' Hermione said smiling at Harry.

* * *

Harry took Hermione's hand and they walked across the town square. Talking long strides they walked up the white marble stairs and threw the several doors. Harry looked around for a spare goblin, and seeing one several slots down, walked towards it. Hermione by his side, Harry took his key from his trouser pocket.

'I would like to withdraw some money please.' Harry said to goblin. The goblin took the key from Harry's outstretched hand and stared at it intensely.

'Very well, will your friend be travelling with you?' Hermione nodded her head. The goblin waved his finger and a smaller than usual, goblin arrived.

'Come this way.' He said taking the key and they stepped through the door leading to the stone path rail tracks. The goblin ushered them into a small cart. Hermione sat on the inside and Harry on the outside.

'Please keep limbs inside the cart. Don't stand up and wait until the cart has stopped before getting out.' The goblin said pulling several levers. Suddenly the cart rocketed off the back wall and launched down spiral tracks. Hermione expecting a more leisurely ride, screamed. She clutched the first thing she could reach, which happened to be Harry's thigh.

Harry chuckled; being use to Quidditch he was use to the fast thrill of riding fast, so he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. She quieted slightly leaning into Harry's embrace, but shrieked when the cart stopped so suddenly that she almost flew straight out the front. Harry got up, and helped Hermione who was slightly shaken up, out.

The goblin opened the vault and Harry glanced in it. What surprised him however was that a letter was floating in the middle of the vault. He glanced at the goblin that was standing there just on the outside of the vault.

'Um, what's that letter?' Harry asked, slightly apprehensive about touching anything he didn't know anything about.

'It's a letter containing information about a will.' He replied neutrally.

Harry's face immediately darkened knowing it was going to be about Sirius. He and Hermione walked into the large golden vault. He walked over to the letter, passing his mountains of money.

The letter had white orbs moving around the simple piece of parchment.

'Make sure that only the owner of this vault touches it. It is protected heavily with charms. Only the person meant to touch it will be allowed.' The goblin said into the vault.

Harry reached his hand out and plucked the letter. He opened it and smoothed it out. He read it out loud so that Hermione would know what it said.

'Dear Mr. Potter, this letter isn't on the best terms. As you are aware your Godfather died earlier in the year.' Harry spoke out loud, stopping to take a shaky breath, and carried on, now with the support of Hermione's hand on his arm. 'A Mister Sirius Black placed you in his contract of his will. He left a large amount of money including the Black mansions. To receive your heirloom you are required to sign the following contract, to prove you agree with accepting it.' As Harry said this a slip appeared in the air along with a quill.

He turned back to the letter and reading.

'Along with signing, information containing everything you inherit will be given to you. Others to inherit from your Godfather's fortune, are Mr. Remus Lupin, Professor Dumbledore, and Molly and Arthur Weasley.' Harry looked up at Hermione as he read it. He glanced down and finished with signing off by the chief goblin.

Harry picked the slip out the air and looked at the dotted line. He sighed loudly.

'You know I would give all my money away to get him back again.' Harry said barely in a whisper.

'I know, but you know that you can't bring him back. He cared about you, Harry. He cared about you so much, and I think he wants you to accept. He wants to care for you, even though he can't be here, he's giving you his money so that you'll be set for life. Maybe you should sign.' Hermione said, placing the quill in Harry's hand and kissing his temple.

Harry looked at Hermione and at the slip. Taking another deep breath he plqaced the quill on the parchment and signed.

The second he finished, the quill and slip dissolved through his fingers. Then his vault enlarged by several times, and coins started to build up. When coins finished appearing the vault seemed crammed with glimmering treasures.

Harry scooped a small amount of gold into his bag and began walking back towards the cart.

'Harry, there's another letter here.' Hermione said pointing towards another piece of parchment. Harry strode over to it, and opened it.

Dear Mr Potter 

_Thank you for accepting Sirius Black's will. You have inherited 24 million Galleons, 35 thousand Sickles, and 45 thousand Knuts. _

_Along with this amount of money your Godfather also left you his mansions. Addresses follow with directions._

_Your Sincerely_

_Thratic_

_Chief Goblin,_

Harry folded it up, and slotted it into his coat pocket.

'Harry, are you alright?' Hermione said while resting her hand on his.

'Yeah I think I'm a bit better. I mean I'm never going to be okay with Sirius dying. But its like I have something of his. It makes me feel closer to him, or as close as I can get anyway.' Harry said smiling down at his girlfriend.

When they got back into the cart, Harry placed his arm around Hermione and she leaned into him, hoping that the ride wouldn't be as fast as before.

* * *

When they stepped out of the white building they were greeted with a downpour of rain. Harry pulled his oversized coat over his and Hermione's head. They ran all the way back to the bookshop. The first thing they noticed when they entered, was that everyone else seemed to have had the same idea. The small shop was filled with chatter and noise as witches placed water repelling spells on their shopping, and themselves, so that they could venture back outside to complete their shopping.

They spotted Ron down one of the aisles, surrounded by their books that he had been totd to keep an eye on. However when he saw his two friends, he stood up.

'Where have you two been? I've been waiting for ages.' Ron said in an aspirated voice.

Hermione shook her head, 'you've been waiting for about ten minutes Ron; now we're sorry we're late for you. Shall we pay for these and see if the rain is slowing down. We might be able to get a snack.'

Ron's eyes lit up with the mention of a snack and quickly grabbed the books to literally throw them into each person's arms. Harry and Ron who had gained muscles from their constant Quidditch practise had muscles to hold their books. But Hermione who hadn't developed her muscles as they had, suddenly found herself trying to hold about ten heavy volumes. Her biceps shook trying to hold them, until she found herself under her year equivalent of books.

Harry shot Ron a disgusted look, which Ron shyly chose to ignore, and bent down to help Hermione.

'Ron, do you realise how many bruises I'm going to have now, flooing and having books thrown at you isn't really what I had in mind for a morning of fun.' Hermione said, but then started to laugh when she noticed Ron jumping from foot to foot, worried how she would even with him, but even more worried how Harry would deal with him.

'It's fine Ron, but I will hex you if you don't help me pick these books up.' Hermione said. Ron leapt down and started to retrieve them, while Harry helped Hermione up. Ron and Harry took half of Hermione's books while she was left with the few light ones, and they made their way towards the checkout.


	8. One step forward, a hundred steps down

Chapter Eight – One step forward, a hundred steps down

When they had paid for their books, they departed the bookshop, running for cover from the still pounding rain. They ran into a small pastry shop, located down a small alleyway. When they entered they saw a table hidden towards the back of the shop, with four comfy seats surrounding it.

Hermione walked over to it and plonked her books into the spare seat. She sat down next to it, and started rinsing her hair out. A small puddle appeared, from the water, which had accumulated in Hermione's hair.

Harry followed Hermione moving between other chairs to get to the table Hermione was sitting at. He sat down next to her, and looked at her while she tried to get rid of some of the excess water her hair had soaked up.

'Eh, this hair must have absorbed all the water. It's soaking. I can't wait to get back, and then I can get changed out of these clothes. They're drenched.'

'I think you look beautiful.' Harry said.

'Yes, well you're supposed to say that.' Hermione replied stubbornly. She relaxed back into her chair and picked up a menu. She placed it in front of her face, so that she could hide from Harry. In truth, Hermione was feeling crabby. She hadn't much sleep, Hermione went to bed early but she didn't go to sleep for hours. She blamed herself that Harry had to carry the world on his shoulders, and made a promise with herself that she would try to come up with as many possible ways of defeating Voldemort. She had countless amounts of brainstorms in her mind, and every night like the night before she came to a dead end.

Harry frowned when she put the menu up, especially after a couple of minutes when she hadn't chosen anything from the menu.

She lowered the menu, when Harry pulled it down. He suddenly noticed how tired her eyes seemed. Ron seemed not to notice as he recited from the menu what he wanted. Harry chose a couple cauldron cakes, and a hot chocolate. Hermione however ended up choosing a herbal tea.

'Don't you want anything to eat?' Harry asked.

'No thanks. I'm not hungry.' She said, while rummaging in her purse for her list of things to get. She plucked it out, and smoothed it out on the table. Taking her pencil she ticked everything she had and looked at what she needed.

'What do you have left to get Hermione?' Ron said when the lady came over to give them what they had ordered. Hermione picked up her cup, took a sip, and answered.

'I need some books that I'm interested in, and some ingredients. Do either of you need to do anything before we see your mum?' Hermione asked.

'Well I'm definetly going to the Quidditch store. I haven't been there for ages; I really want to see the latest gadgets. You wanna come with me Harry?' Ron asked. Harry looked at Hermione. He knew something was up with her, but he also really wanted to go to the Quidditch shop.

'Harry, go to the shop with Ron. I need to check some things so I'll be fine. It's alright you can go.' Hermione said, when Harry still looked uncertain.

'Fine, shall we meet you at the Leaky Cauldron at 12?'

'Yes, that'll be fine. I better get going, I want to look at as many books as possible.' She said while draining the dregs at the bottom of the cup. She took a galleon out of her purse and made to put it down when Harry's hands closed round it.

'Keep it, I've got the tab.' He said. Hermione looked at him and smiled she stood up and reached down and kissed him on his forehead.

'Thanks, I'll see both of you later.' She picked up her bags and left the shop as fast as she could.

Harry turned to his friend who sat there having taking a bite of a small pastry.

'Something's up with her,' he said.

Ron chewed slower, and when he swallowed he nodded 'I was thinking the exact same thing. She just isn't acting like Hermione. It's hard to put my finger on, but she seems edgier.'

'Precisely'

* * *

Hermione scurried down the street, with a small piece of paper in hands. She had received this pamphlet from Dumbledore. He knew she was always interested in unusual books, and apparently this place had all the rare books people had never heard of, or if they had heard of them, then they hadn't seen them. She wouldn't be allowed to buy them, but she would be able to read up as much as she liked there.

Hermione walked to the signpost that directed her to all the different alleys. She saw that Knockturn was towards her right. But pointing towards the east was the alley she was looking for –Trumain. She made her way down the alley, and past numerous shops. The shops were nothing like Diagon. Instead of the friendly, welcoming, variety of shops, here the place was disserted. All the shops held cobwebs in the windows. The place held on air of age. Even the atmosphere felt stuffy, and compressed.

Hermione glanced back down at the piece of paper, and read the directions to get there.

Trumain Alley 

_Past 'Rusty's Antiques' and before 'Pandora's Box'_

_In between is a dustbin, lift the lid, get in, place lid back on. _

_Welcome to the World's Oldest Library_

Hermione saw 'Rusty's Antiques', and the dustbin standing outside between the shops. Hermione stopped and looked around, nobody was there. She took the tin lid off the bin, and placed the lid on the ground next to her shopping.

Looking around again, she flung her shopping into the bin. Then getting in, she rolled her eyes at how weird this seemed. She was squashed with her shopping, but when the lid came down over her, the bottom gave way and she found herself falling, her shrieks echoed against the tin surrounding. Her hands reached out, to find that it was no longer tin surrounding her, but instead stone. The speed she found herself at caused her clothes to get snagged in some places and her hands got scrapped when she reached out. Suddenly she emerged into a light room, and landed with a thud a soft mattress.

The mattress also stopped her shopping. When she had gotten over the shock of falling so far, she looked around at the surroundings she had fallen into.

* * *

Dumbledore was right this had to be one of the oldest libraries. Instead of books standing up, and resting between others. Here the books were laid out on a glass cabinet that surrounded the room. Glass cabinets stood in the middle of the room, which is where she found a man putting spells on one of the books.

He looked up and smiled at her. Hermione immediately noticed how old this man was. He had very little hair on the top of his head, but the little he did have was a brilliant shade of white. He was also small, which Hermione was glad of, she rarely got to meet someone on the same level as her.

As he walked out from behind the glass table he hobbled over towards her, she stood up and straightened her knee length shirt, and positioned her hand so that he would be able to shake it.

'Lovely to meet you, how can I help you?' he said in a clear voice.

'Hello, I'm here to look at some books please, Professor Dumbledore told me about this place.' Hermione said feeling the need to explain how she knew how to get here.

'Of course, please be aware of the protective spells surrounding each book. If there is a book you are interested in then please just tell me, and I'll remove the spells for you.' Hermione smiled, this place felt very safe, the air she breathed in relaxed her, and filled her up. She left her bags by the place she had fallen on to, and padded around the room looking at the titles of the books. She found herself gasping, and salivating at the names that she had read about. She wished she could stop and read all of the volumes, but she need defence books.

When she came across one of volumes her feet stood rooted to the spot, she couldn't believe her eyes. Before her, sitting on the glass, covered in spells was Merlin's secret diary. _Where he wrote all his secret magic spells down_. That was the caption that hung below the small leather bound journal. _The pages were made out of horse leather, and the ink was used from crushed beetles_.

Hermione took a deep breath, she just couldn't believe it. She turned around to try to find the gentleman. When she found him, she called out.

'Excuse me sir, I would like to read this please.' Hermione apprehensively, not sure whether this was still possible, or whether she was living in a dream.

The short man shuffled over, and lifted his wand, muttering numerous spells under his breath, the multicoloured spells that had been hovering over the book slowly disappeared.

'Merlin's personal diary, it's a very interesting read, the book has to stay here, I try not to move these volumes around, it helps to preserve them. Also we have some instruments, which we use to read. The pages are extremely delicate so we have these.' He pointed to some instruments. He handed her a spatula looking one. Turn the pages with this.

'You use muggle methods?' Hermione asked interested, as she had seen ancient books handled in the same sort of way when she went to a museum.

'Yes, I have found that the magic seems to damage the artefacts, you cannot control how strong you turn the pages. I put magic on all the books when they are not in use because it helps to preserve them. It prevents air, moisture and light from damaging them. Enjoy it.'

A chair appeared next to Hermione, which she dragged over. She sat down and picked up the instrument. Turning the pages gently she opened to the beginning. The pages were jagged and she could see that the horse leather must have been cut with a blunt knife.

She slowly began reading the works that all wizards and witches worshiped. Hermione was surprised by how clear the text was. The ink seemed to have fixed to leather, and his writing was very clear. She closed her eyes, made a small prayer.

'Merlin, help me.'


	9. Praying for time

Chapter Nine – Praying for time

Hermione had been so absorbed in her reading, that she didn't have any idea of the time, which had passed. The room she was in had no windows, as it was very far underground, however it was constantly light, and this made it hard to know what time it actually was.

She had almost finished Merlin's journal. She had learned so much about the time he lived in. It also gave her a lot to think about. Merlin had explained about some of the obvious things, but as Hermione thought more about, she thought that just how she could use these easy ideas to maybe come up with ways to defeat Voldemort. A passage that Hermione had copied out was such a fundamental idea that she was shocked she hadn't thought about it before.

_Today Arthur asked me, why there was evil in the world. Because I am his trusted advisor, I had to answer, it took me a few moments before I could answer and then it came to me with the speed of Zeus' lightening bolt. The answer I gave to my trusted friend was that the world we live in needs balance. The world wouldn't be balanced if we didn't have evil. There are also many worlds separate from ours, which balance ours. If our world were completely good then the other world would be completely evil_.

Hermione had felt that, that passage was the answer, she didn't know how, or why, but it was. She had asked her new friend if he wouldn't disturb her. When she came to the end of the journal, she used the instrument to gently close it.

She was very tired, but brushed it aside, this was a breakthrough, and she convinced herself that she had been tired all day so naturally she should be tired now.

She walked over to William, who was the owner of the library.

'William, I've finished, it was long but really interesting, you can put the wards back on. I'm just going to sit down here so I can do some thinking, I think I got the answers that I needed but I've just got to understand them. Is that alright?'

'Of course you can stay Hermione, would like a drink?'

'Oh thank you.' Hermione replied. The air was like a drug it had relaxed her completely. She had forgotten everything, except everything in the room.

She made herself comfortable on a couch and read the passage she had written hundreds of times. –There are also many worlds, which balance ours–. She read that line more than the others.

* * *

Hermione had already finished her drink, and several others. She had come up with an idea; she didn't have a clue whether it would work. She prayed several times, hopes that the light side had just gained the upper hand.

She had stayed with William. They talked about many things and she found out much about his life.

'I was born in England; I've inherited this library from my parents. It's been in the family for hundreds of years.'

'Did you want to work here?' Hermione asked, though she wondered why anybody wouldn't want to.

'Oh yes, I love books, I always have. I must have read all these volumes hundreds of times. I stay down here all my life, I have a couple of house elves which get me my food, and help me look after this place.'

'Have you got anyone to look after it, in case something happens to you?' Hermione asked, wondering if this interesting man had any children.

'Hopefully, I have a son, but he's gone into the career of Herbology. He's especially interested in how they can be used for medicinal uses. However I also have a grandson, he should be about your age. He's very interested in books. I think that, that gene must have skipped a generation. I've had many talks with him, trying to explain what to do with the books, and how to look after them. He's just out of school, you might be able to meet him actually he comes for meetings in the mornings.'

Something seemed to snap in Hermione's mind, the air seemed slightly clearer for a few moments and she realised what he had said. She might be able to meet him, but he came for meetings in the mornings. What time did that make it now? Hermione thought.

'William, excuse me what time is?'

'Its nine, why?' William asked.

Hermione staggered up clutching her head, the room was spinning. This wasn't supposed to happen she had totally lost track of time. Then she became even more confused. If it were nine at night then why would she be seeing his grandson?

She voiced her question as she slowly steadier her head. William chuckled,

'No, my dear Hermione, it's nine in the morning. You probably don't feel very tired, it's because this air is a special mixture of spells…'

But Hermione blocked him out, with the shock of the fact she had been here for almost 24 hours, and the fact she hadn't eaten anything, and the air making her feel even more light headed, she collapsed onto the floor, her head making a hard connection with the wooden floor.

* * *

Harry was out of his mind with worry, they were currently at the burrow, and none of them had slept, partly because the house was crawling with aurors, but also because Harry had been worrying himself with what Hermione could be going through. He felt it was his fault, he knew that it was more dangerous, now, especially now, and what did he go and do, leave Hermione on her own.

Harry and Ron had walked back to the leaky cauldron half an hour late, to find that Molly was out of her mind. But soon Harry's mind was in the similar state as Molly's when Hermione hadn't turned up. They all grew concerned that after several hours she still hadn't returned.

They soon called the aurors, and many were out searching for her. Half the squad had to hold Harry down to prevent him looking for her.

Currently they were all sitting around the table, nursing cups of coffee, which was keeping them awake. Waiting for news was something Harry and Ron had always hate.

* * *

Suddenly at 9.30 one of the aurors ran into the kitchen,

'We found her,' Harry and Ron jumped up from their seats.

'What happened? Where is she? Is she all right?' Fell out of Harry's mouth.

'She's at St. Mungos, we found her while some of our aurors where searching around Diagon alley, a boy was carrying Hermione. We've got him in for questioning. Hermione's still unconscious, but we're hoping she'll wake up soon. We can take you there if you like?'

'Yes, take me to Hermione.' Harry said gripping the auror's arm, and grabbing Ron, so he could come along.

When they apparated into St. Mungos, Harry's body shook from dread. He and Ron ran up to the reception, and patiently waited for the people in front of them to receive the information they needed.

'Hermione Granger?' Harry said.

'Sixth floor, room 614' the blonde witch replied. Harry and Ron moved away, and towards the lift.

They walked in, and pressed the sixth floor button several times, to try to hurry it up.

'I thought that there was only five floors.' Harry asked,

'Yeah there was, but there have been so many injuries that they have made another floor, for people that they don't know what's wrong with, or if they don't come under any of the other possible categories.' Ron replied looking at the pointer, showing which level, they currently were at.

When the lift reached the sixth floor, after stops at almost all the other floors, Harry and Ron leapt out of the lift and raced down the corridor. 'Slow down,' and 'No running in the corridors.' Was shouted at them, but the only time they stopped was when they reached room 614. They knocked and walked in.

Hermione was lying in the bed, her skin pale. She had breathing instruments surrounding her and intravenous lines in several of her veins. A nurse was hovering over her, checking her. She looked up when Harry and Ron ran in.

'Oh you two are here now, she should be waking up soon, we've given her some reviving potions, and so within a few minutes she should be awake.' With that the mediwitch, left the room.

Harry and Ron pulled chairs, up and sat next to her bed, both taking one of her hands. Harry noticed how cold her hand was, as he smoothed her skin. He found the cannular inserted in her hand got in the way of his strokes. He noticed the large gash on her head, and tightened his hands; the person who did this would not get away with it. Not while Harry was alive.

Suddenly she moved her hands, she put them on her head, and was moving about, muttering incoherent words.

Harry and Ron moved closer to try to hear what she was saying.

'Harry…Ron…leaky Cauldron…late…they'll be worried…' then suddenly her eyes flew open to see Harry and Ron in her face.

With her exhaustion, and lack of food, seeing Harry's face so near hers, relaxed her so quickly she was unable to hold herself together, and found herself crying with relief,

'Harry' she choked out, before he pulled her to him. She had her head in his chest and she never felt so protected. To feel his arms around her frail body she shivered from the lack of touch for what now felt so long. As Hermione cried her soul out at seeing Harry, Harry was looking at Ron. He lifted his hand and with a serious expression made a movement across his neck.

Harry was going to kill the person that had done this to Hermione. He didn't have a chance.

Suddenly Hermione stilled, her mind was reeling, at what had happened, and she remembered the information she had gained. She violently pulled away from Harry, and pushed her way past him, she had ripped the cannulars from her hands; but found Harry had pulled her back. He looked concerned at the sudden change in Hermione.

'Harry I have to Dumbledore, its important.' She tried to get past him, but Ron had joined Harry at his side.

'Please. Let me past.' Hermione pleaded, the sooner she could do this, the sooner Harry wouldn't have to worry about Voldemort. That had been what Hermione's goal since she had known about Harry, and having him as her friend. She was desperate to help him that he always came before her.

Hermione was starting to panic at what to do. Harry and Ron immediately noticed Hermione starting to become unnerved. Then suddenly she reached into her coat that she was still wearing and pulled out her wand.


	10. All for one, and one for all

Chapter Ten – All for one, and one for all

Hermione sped through the corridors of St. Mungos, she was still feeling light headed, but she pushed it aside. She was grateful that she was still wearing her normal clothes otherwise she wouldn't have been able to get out of the hospital as easy as she was.

Her mind went back to when she stunned her boys. She didn't want to do it but she had no choice. They would thank her in the end, however she struggled to convince herself of that. They had looked at her with such disbelief. When she entered the ground floor, she spotted the fireplaces that lined one of the walls. Some people were exiting one of them, so she picked and empty looking one. Grabbing some of the floo, she prayed that Dumbledore would be in his office in Hogwarts.

'Hogwarts –Professor Dumbledore's Office.' She said, while throwing the floo powder in. She was pulled away from St. Mungos, and found herself zooming past hundreds of grates.

She floomed out of Dumbledore's office and relieved a held breath. There sitting at his desk which she had seen numerous times before was Dumbledore.

'Miss Granger, would you like a seat?' he said pointing to an empty chair opposite his table.

'Thanks' she said, picking herself up from the floor.

* * *

Harry and Ron slowly managed to come out of their paralytic state. When they were fully mobilised, they had exactly the same idea as Hermione. Harry knew she was going to see Dumbledore, why, he had no idea. They floomed into his office to see Hermione and Dumbledore in a heated argument. They were both standing and shouting at each other. Neither of the boys had ever seen Dumbledore so angry, he almost had fire in his eyes.

Hermione had tears pouring down her face, her eyes were blood shot and showed just how tired she was. She was standing to try to match how intimidating Professor Dumbledore was making her feel.

* * *

When Hermione had told him about her idea, Dumbledore had exploded, saying it was not an option. Hermione believeing that this was the answer to all their prayers, didn't believe him, and tried to make him understand why she thought it was such a good idea.

Dumbledore was desperate for her to understand that the solution Hermione had come up with was out of the question, it could destroy everything, and he wasn't prepared to do that.

What happened next surprised Harry and Ron, that they were rooted in their spots for several moments. Dumbledore swept around his desk and grasped Hermione by the shoulders and shook her hard, trying to get her understand.

Harry snapped out of his shock, and leapt forward, he pulled the old man off Hermione and protectively held Hermione. Ron stood in front of them. Dumbledore slowly turned around and took a deep breath.

'Hermione, there is no way your idea will work, please don't go through with it.' He said once he had calmed down slightly.

'It's the only idea any of us have thought about; I don't care whether you don't support this decision. I'm going through with it, both of us will. Now I'm going back to the Burrow, I'm really tired.' Hermione shakily stood up and made her way back to fireplace. Tears slowly subsiding, she grabbed some floo powder, 'i'll see you two back at the burrow,'

When she disappeared, the two boys looked at Dumbledore, 'just try to persude her not to go through, please.'

Harry and Ron just walked towards the fireplace and flooed to the burrow, when they arrived, and they noticed Hermione had disappeared again. Harry assumed that Hermione had gone up to bed, even though it was eleven in the morning. While walking through the kitchen Ron grabbed a few rolls of bread, thinking that she would probably be hungry.

When they reached the top of the stairs they turned towards Ginny's room. When they walked in Hermione was scribbling down something on some parchment, her tired eyes stretched to the door when Harry and Ron came in.

'Come on Hermione, come and stay in our room, you wont be alone, and maybe when you feel better you can tell us what's going on.' Ron said, as Harry slowly placed his arms around Hermione's shoulders. She stood up and allowed Harry to gently steer her the right way to Ron's room, her hand still clasped the parchment, which Harry assumed had some connection with everything that had been going on.

* * *

When they got to Ron's room, Harry gently manouvered Hermione onto his bed, where after removing her coat, she immediately fell asleep.

Harry prised the parchment out of her hand and smoothed it, Ron had made his way over, and pulled the parchment slightly his way, so that they could both read what Hermione had been scribbling away at.

Harry looked at his sleeping angel and turning back to the writing.

Key Words 

_Balance. Worlds. Switch. Voldem-_

That was all that was on the piece on parchment. Harry and Ron had no idea what those 4 words meant.

Ron took a large bite of the bread roll, and turned to Harry, 'What the hell is that on about?'

'I have no idea, but when she wakes up, we'll find out.'

* * *

Hermione slowly woke up, she was still tired, but she always struggled sleeping during the day. The first thing she noticed was Harry sitting on the end of her bed. She smiled at him, and he replied.

'Hey, you feeling better?' Harry asked wondering whether she would be better enough to tell them what was going on.

'Yes, I'm really hungry though.'

'Well I'm not surprised, you've missed lunch, dinner, breakfast, and lunch again.'

'I think I had something during yesterday, I can't really remember though,' Hermione said rubbing her hand against her temple to try to sooth the beginning of a headache.

Harry stood up and sat next to Hermione. He looked serious at Hermione, while he stroked her check, 'Did the bastard do anything to you, just tell me,'

'What do you mean, who are you talking about?' Hermione asked, wondering whether Harry was talking about William. He was anything but a bastard.

'The guy that was carrying you, did he do anything, because I swear if he did, he wont get away with it.'

'I don't remember a guy, unless you're talking about an almost seventy year old, that was who I was with most of the time. And I doubt he could have carried me.' Hermione was really starting to get confused, and it seemed Harry was, Hermione decided to end the conversation before she got that headache that seemed to be growing in her head.

'Harry can we just leave it, I'm getting a headache, and I need to look at that list I was writing.'

'Yeah, about that list, can you explain it please, but wait for Ron, he's just gone down for some more food. You know we don't have secrets, between the three of us, and now because we are going out, I want us to be closer than before.'

Hermione took a deep breath, 'yes you're right, I want us to be closer, okay I'll tell you, but first can I have some food, I'm starving, and I also want something else.'

'Yes baby, what can I get you?' Hermione instead of repling , reached out her hand and slid it behind Harry's neck, pulling him forward she captured Harry's lips, she quickly opened her mouth, pulling his tongue with hers. Her head soon resting on her pillow, and Harry's weight was a welcome pressure against her body. One of harry's hands was tangled in her hair, while the other was resting on the side of her stomach. A small portion of her t-shirt had rustled up, leaving a small patch of skin exposed. Harry's hand lay on it, and they both enjoyed the contact of skin. Harry craving more of her creamy skin, placed his hand slightly under it, feeling the soft cotton moving above his hand, and her soft skin molded against his hand. They both reluctlently pulled apart when Ron coughed from the doorway.

'I see you're awake.' Ron said as he plonked a selection of food on the bed in front of Hermione.

Hermione turned slightly red, while grabbing some buttered toast. 'Right when you've finished you can explain what the hell is going on.' Ron said before sitting on his bed. Hermione picked up a glass of water that was placed on a shelf, she glanched on it, wondering whether it was safe to drink. Ron noticing what Hermione was probably thinking said, 'You can drink it, it's from today'.

Once Hermione had finished several pieces of bread, and her glass of water, she shook her hands against each other.

'Okay what do you want to know?' she said while looking at both boys.

'Everything, and start at the beginning.' Ron said.

'Alright, yesterday when I said I was going to a bookstore, I was partly right. I went to the oldest library. There are all the oldest books, really rare, and things people have never heard of before.

'The place is underground, anyway, I found an unbelieveable book, which I read. I got some information, that I'm going to use to defeat Voldemort.'

'Do you want to explain what it is, and the reason that Dumbledore doesn't want you to go through with it?' Harry asked. starting to agree with Dumbledore. if she wanted to take Voldemort on by herself, she had another thing coming.

'Right, in this book, it explain that we have more than one world. We have more than one world to balance everything out. Now somewhere out there, is another world, which is mirrored by ours. Basically its our world but opposite, or some of the things are. I thought that maybe we could some how get in touch with this other world, and use Voldemort as our alley in our wor–'

'What the hell, you want to become friends with Voldemort, whats happened to you. You do remember what he's like, don't you?'

'Yes, I know he's evil here, but think about it. The more evil he is here, the more good he will be in the other world.'

'God that's completated. But why do we have to use Voldemort, why can't we use ourselves?' Ron said.

'Look, if we're good in this world, then we'll be evil in the other world. Ourselves could kill us if they wanted, they wouldn't though because they would feel everything that they did to us.'

'So why does Dumbledore not want you to go through with it?' Ron asked, starting to think that it was quite a good idea.

'Because he said that the two worlds should never cross. But this is the solution, if their world is mirrored by ours then it is in trouble as well. I'm doing it, with or without you two, obviously I would like you two to help.' Hermione said hoping hey would.

'Hermione, of course we will help you, you don't need to ask us, we're always by your side.' Harry said, 'do you know what to do?'

'Well I kinda do, I'm just going to have to research what i need and i think the best way is to use potions. i had a think about it, but i probably need to go into more detail.'

Ron stuck his hand out in the middle of the three. Harry placed his on top, and then Hermione.

'All for one, and one for all' Ron shouted, he looked sheepish when Hermione and Harry started to laugh.


	11. The world stops for noone

Chapter Eleven – The world stops for no one

Hermione was surrounded with books, all to do with parallel worlds, potions and universes. She had been staring at all the books for the last few hours. What was really frustrating her was that she just couldn't seem to come up with an answer for how to come in contact with another world.

Harry walked into the room Hermione was sitting in. he sat down in a chair next to her and while Hermione had her head in her hands, Harry rubbed circles on her back.

'Hermione, please don't over do it. Take a rest, we'll look at it again a little later.'

'I guess so, I could do with something to eat. Shall we go down to the kitchen?'

'Yes, come on.' He held her hand in his and pulled her up. When they walked into the kitchen several aurors were hanging around. When they saw Hermione they stood up, and walked to her. She turned to Harry

'Baby can you go and get me something to eat please, anything will do. I'll just talk them.'

'Are you sure, because I can stay with you?'

'I'm fine, but you would be most useful getting me something to eat please.' She pouted her lips, to try to get him out of the room. Harry looked up at the aurors and lowered his head so he could talk to Hermione without them listening in.

'Just call if you want me to come, Okay?' Hermione nodded her head. She turned her head to the aurors once Harry had left the room.

'Miss Granger we are currently holding your captor back at the station, will you be pressing charges?' One of the aurors said.

'My captor? What are you talking about?'

'The boy that was carrying you when we found you.' The auror said that was confused that she didn't know what he was talking about.

'Um can I see him please,' Hermione said thinking that maybe she knew who he was talking about.

The aurors glanced at each other, not sure how to answer, kidnapped people didn't usually request to see their captors. The more senior auror out of the three of them, nodded his head, 'alright, do you want any protective wards around?'

'No I don't think that will be necessary.' She said looking up, seeing Harry walking into the room. 'We're going to the auror station. You wanna come?'

'Of course I'm coming, I want to see the guy that was holding you.' Harry said through gritted teeth. Hermione noticed he had his hands had turned into fists, and power seemed to radiate of him.

'Harry, honey, I was unconscious, I couldn't walk.' Hermione said trying to calm him down. Hermione had never seen Harry looking so powerful and deadly.

'Yes, that's another thing I want to find out. Why you were unconscious.' Harry said, his power slowly encirclulating him. Hermione looked at the aurors, who didn't seem to know what to do. Hermione made a movement with her hands to shoo them out the room. When the left, Hermione slowly walked up to harry. His eyes unfocused and his fists looking ready to use.

She placed her hands on Harry's, trying to calm him down. She stepped into his posture and ran her hands up his arms and around his shoulders.

'Harry, you need to calm down, we're just going to see him, and then come back here. You need to trust me that he didn't do anything. I would know, okay. And also if you don't calm down then I'll have to leave you here, and I'll go on my own-'

'There is no way you're going to see him without me.' Harry said glancing down at Hermione. His eyes softening slightly looking at hers.

'Then you're going to have to calm down.' Hermione looked into Harry's eyes to see him slightly calmer. She smiled and learned forward to capture his mouth with hers. Harry hungrily grabbed her, and held her tightly in his embrace. When they separated he looked down at her.

'I don't know what I would do if I ever lost you.' Harry said. Hermione pecked his lips,

'You will never lose me, I promise, I'm with you for the long haul, Harry, nothing will separateme from you. Now shall we go?'

* * *

When they had apparated into the building, they were met with the site of a large commoaton going on in the foyer.

Harry and Hermione glanced at each other, wondering what was going on. A young man was talking quite loud waveing his arms around the air. The person on the receiving end of his temper was patiently listening to what he had to say. The man looked around the room in hope for a miracle. When his eyes landed on Hermione, he gasped. He recognised her immediately, she was obviously here to support his aliby, and to tell how innocent he was. He quickly ran the few meters distance between them, until he was next to her. Clutching her arms he wept with relief. The position he had been in was one that could have easily landed him in Azcaban.

* * *

Harry hadignored the commotion when they arrived, and turned around to keep a look outfor the aurors whom had brought them here. They would be setting up a meeting between the three of them.

* * *

Hermione was roughly pulled away from the nearness of Harry and gasped when the hands clamped tightly over her arms. They were still sore and it felt like he was giving her bruises. His face loomed in closely and she thought she recognised him, but she was shocked that her mind didn't seem to working. All she wanted was to be close to Harry again. Where she felt safe. So she did the next thing that came to mind. She tried to get away.

* * *

When harry heard Hermione gasp, he reacted without thinking and turned around. He was greeted with the site of Hermione struggling against a man handling her. Aurors appeared, wands raised. he suddenly felt himself have the full body bind placed on him fired by a misjudged aurorbefore he could react to helping Hermione.

'Hold your fire.' was commanded by a senior auror. None ofHarry's muscles worked but he could still hear, and what he heard angered him.

'It's the same man. He shouldn't have been in the entrance, it was supposed to be a calm meeting not abloody fight.'

Harry's power exploded with thought of what Hermione might be going through. The full body curse disappeared with a powerful green wave. He lept up and before even getting to her. His power had already ripped the man away from Hermione. Hermione automically was pulled towards harry, where she ended up in his arms.

Harry's eyes taking on a life of their own glowed a radient green. Hermione immediately recognised his behaviour similar to the one back at the house. She pulled harry's face towards her and looked deep into his eyes. She didn't want him to do something that he would regret. His eyes softened slightly when she looked into him. She pulled him towards her and still in his arms she kissed him softly. He quickly responded bringing her closer. Opening her mouth, the kiss soon turned passionet very quickly. Hermione moaned against his mouth as she felt his tongue slide slowly against hers.

When she opened her eyes several minutes, she noticed that his eyes had returned to normal except for a slight twinge of bright green. When she looked around the room she noticed that all the aurors where staring eyes wide at the spectule of what they had just witness. Hermione blushed at how public they had been about their affections and she buried her head in Harry's chest.

One of the aurors snapped out of his trance and walked towards them. Several others moved towards the unconscious form of the man lying on the floor.

'Do you still want to have the meeting, Miss Granger?' Hermione instead of saying anything, she nodded her head.

'Right, well seeing as he is currently unconscious, you'll have to wait for a few minutes until we are able to revive him. If it's okay we'll just question you in the time being?'

Hermione snapped her head up, 'what do you mean he is unconscious?'

The auror looked confused, 'the man lying over there is unconscious, he was the man we found with you.'

'But I don't know him, I've never seen him before.' Hermione said starting to get worked up.

'Hermione, you need to calm down.' Harry said.

'Me? Calm down? What about you, you were anything but calm a few moments ago.' Hermione said, beginning to hyperventilate. Her life was such a mess. She was tired and she had to finish preparing the transition between both worlds.

Standing up, she pointed her finger at the man slowly regaining conscience.

'He is innocent. I fainted, he was probably carrying me to help. He's innocent, nothing happened. I would know. Just let him go, please, drop all charges.'

Harry walked back over, 'are you sure?' Hermione nodded her head. 'Let's go home, Harry.'

He turned to the aurors, 'thanks for holding him, but if Hermione wants him to be let go, then its probably best to do it.' He looked at Hermione, 'but don't think I'm ever going to let you out of my site.' She smiled and wrapped her arms around his waist and leanded into his embrace.

'Why would I want to?' she said looking into his eyes, affection pouring from them. They stood there, wrapped in each others arms waiting to go home. Together.


	12. Lying in the spot light

Chapter Twelve – Lying in the spot light

Harry and Ron were sitting in the kitchen clutching several pieces of toast. Hermione and Ginny were still in their room. The two boys were starting to get worried about Hermione. She had been taking this theory too far.

* * *

Hermione and Ginny were still lying in bed. The weather was pleasantly warm and the girls found themselves with their sheets rolled down to their waist. Hermione had her hand running through her hair. This was a rare treat. She was usually up by now, and then she would be straight back into her work. But she had let herself have a little break, because she had decided that the potion she had made would only need a couple more hours, and then it would be ready. She hoped it would work, with the information from Merlin's diary, also her own input of knowledge and guesswork, she thought she had cracked it.

An owl tapped on the window, keeping his balance steady with his wings. Hermione groaned, slowly sitting up and lifting the latch. The owl flew in and made a beeline towards Hermione. Sticking his foot out, Hermione untied the newspaper from him and grabbed a few knuts that were on her trunk. Sitting up so she had her back leaning against the wall Hermione unrolled the newspaper. Ginny peered at Hermione.

'Anything interesting?'

'Dunno yet, I'm just about to have a look. How are you today?' Hermione began to say before her eyes widen in shock at the front page. Her mouth began gapping, speechless. Her eyes changed direction and what they were greeted with shocked Hermione even more than the heading.

* * *

Harry had just finished putting the last bite of his toast into his mouth, when he heard a scream echo through out the house. The boys glanced at each other before leaping up and racing up the stairs.

When they reached the girls bedroom, Ginny was already trying to comfort Hermione. Hermione was shaking slightly.

Ginny looked up to see the boys in the doorway with their wands poised. She rolled her eyes, typical for them to think that everything had something to do with magic she thought. Thinking on the top of her head she gave a final pat to Hermione's back before standing up walking towards Ron. Grabbing Ron's hand she dragged him out the room, and shut the door.

Harry stared as Ron and Ginny left him there in the room with Hermione. He walked towards to her and sat down on her bed. Pulling her onto his lap and gently forced her head to rest on his shoulder.

'What's wrong?' he said and kissed her forehead. Hermione instead on answering pulled the newspaper towards Harry and left it in his lap. Harry using his free hand lifted it up, and looked on in shock as the whole front page showed Harry and Hermione's relationship.

HARRY POTTER'S NOT SO SECRET LOVE

_Harry potter who has always been famous among wizards and witches, for his weakening of you-know-who 15 years ago this Halloween seems to have been put under a spell by one of his best friends. With the rise of he who must not be named he is preparing to fully defeat this monster. But recently it seems there is another distraction in his life now. Hermione granger who some may remember is a close friend of Harry. But it now seems that she has become something more of a friend. Several years ago we ran the article of _Harry Potter's secret heartache, which_ they denied. But it now seems that we were correct all along. This plain boring girl has stolen the heart that so many of us love. The complications that this relationship that might cause of course run much darker. If this girl distracts Harry from defeating you-know-who, then it could of course have massive complications for the magical and muggle world. Is this girl so stone hearted that she willing to sacrifice everyone's life for the infatuation we all hold._

Harry's blood was boiling, but erupted when he saw the multiple pictures of Hermione and him in some rather intimate positions.

He threw the newspaper into the corner of the room and lifted Hermione's chin so he could look into her eyes. Tears were threatening to overcome her eyelids, so Harry kissed each eye. He could taste the saltiness, from the leaking tears.

'Hermione, it's just the media. They make a big deal out of everything. They know nothing about our relationship. This doesn't change the way I feel for you.' Harry said, 'I hope it doesn't change your feelings for me.'

Hermione cupped his cheek, and leaned her forehead on his, 'of course it doesn't change how I feel. But it calls me plain boring girl, and that I've stolen your heart, from everyone.'

'You are anything but plain and boring, you're beautiful, generous, kind. You always think of others. And I don't care if you've stolen my heart, because you're the only person who is ever going to have it. Not anyone else.' Harry said fiercely.

'This is so annoying because this was supposed to be a happy day, I think I might have cracked the whole switching worlds thing with my potion. And where on earth did they get these pictures?' Hermione said.

'Well you know reporters, they are sneaky, and will do anything for the best story. Don't worry it will all be old news by tomorrow.' Harry said.

'Harry. You are never old news.'

'I'm sorry you had to be on the receiving end of all this stupid stuff.'

'Hey, this isn't your fault, you never asked for them to invade your personal life. I just never really realised what it felt like, until they put that piece in.' Hermione said while stroking Harry's hair.

'So do you want to tell me why this was going to be a happy day?' Harry asked, remembering Hermione mentioning it before.

Hermione started to fidget in Harry's lap, and was suddenly very interested in his buttons. 'Well I think the potion might be ready. From the information I've gained I don't think there's really any difference when we perform it, but it has a few more hours to simmer.'

'Well if you don't have anything else to do in those few hours, I was wondering if you wanted to come to Grimmauld place with me, I don't know if I can go alone, not yet.' Hermione smiled, and placed a soft and lingering kiss on his check.

'Of course, I would love to come with you. Just let me get dressed first.' Hermione said.

'You not still upset about the whole newspaper thing?' Harry asked wondering about her sudden attitude change.

'Nope, because you can't be perfect, can you. This is you flaw. You attract a lot of media, but I wouldn't want to change you any other way. Now I'll meet you downstairs.' Hermione said and gently pushed Harry outside the door.

* * *

Once Hermione had picked out some comfy jeans and a long t-shirt, and padded downstairs in her sandals.

'Ron and Ginny have gone into Diagon Alley, so it's just us two.' Harry said and they entered the fireplace.

When they flooed into the fireplace in the sitting room of Grimmauld place, they were greeted with the site of a run down room.

Hermione gasped in shock at how far it had deteriorated. The sofas had been moth eaten, dust lay in inches, and the curtains blocked out the rays of sunlight, making the room appear old, and smelling very musty.

'Oh my Gosh, what on Earth happened here?' Hermione said, glancing around until her eyes landed on Harry.

Harry looked at her, and shrugged his shoulders. 'No idea, I supposed Sirius was never very into cleaning.'

Hermione walked through the room. Running her finger through the amount of dust that was on the table. Harry walked past her and started walking up the stairs. Hermione stayed downstairs, but started to walk towards the kitchen as she saw some of the dust was disturbed in the direction of the kitchen.

* * *

Harry was on the second landing and was just looking through some of the rooms, to see how much work he would have to do, but suddenly turned around and leapt downstairs when he heard Hermione start screaming. From the pitch of her scream he could tell that she was afraid. When he was half way down, Hermione suddenly stopped screaming.

'HERMIONE' Harry shouted. When he heard no response, he put on a spurt of speed and threw himself into the kitchen with his wand in his hand. He was greeted with the site that the kitchen had been totally destroyed. Plates, tables, chairs were lying splinted around the room. Harry felt his heart skip several beats when he saw Hermione lying still, with her back towards him on one of the work surfaces.


	13. Keeping steady in a whirlwind

Chapter thirteen – Keeping steady in a whirlwind

Harry raced towards Hermione, his heart aching in his chest. He reached her and rolled her gently over on to her back so he could see her face. His rib cage relaxed when he saw her eyelids flutter open. She took in a shaky breath between her gritted teeth.

Harry still had his wand in his hand, but loosen his hold on it, as he stroked her forehead.

'Hey babe.' He whispered. 'Are you okay? I'm going to get us out of here.'

Hermione slowly nodded her head. Harry not knowing whether she was agreeing that she was okay, or that she agreed with the fact that she wanted to get out of here, picked Hermione up and let her rest her head on his chest as he slowly walked out of the kitchen. He had no idea what had happened and if there were Death Eaters around he wanted to be ready. Once he got into the sitting room, he gently placed Hermione and himself in the fireplace, grabbing the floo powder, he threw it down while shouting out 'The Burrow.'

* * *

When they gushed out of the fireplace, Mrs Weasley immediately rushed towards them.

'Hermione was attacked. We were at Grimmauld place. Please help.' Harry said, struggling to form sensible words as she lay in his arms.

Molly using magic lifted Hermione up onto the table and started busying herself around, picking up ointments, potions and manuals.

She started pouring a potion down Hermione throat. Hermione grimaced when the sour potion hit the back of her mouth. Soon however Hermione's daze started to return to normal, and her faintness seemed to fade. She closed her eyes, and realised that she felt really tired, and she was wondering why she was lying in Harry's arms. Though she wasn't complaining.

'Hermione, how are you.' Molly asked gently unsure what the response was going to be.

'Um… Fine, I guess. Why? Shouldn't I be?'

Molly pulled Harry away from her. Harry was looking at Hermione, making sure she was all right, but he continued to listen to Molly.

'Harry, I shouldn't worry. The potion I gave her can have the side effect of making the person temporarily lose their short-term memory. She should get it back, a little later today.'

Harry nodded his head in understanding, and swept past her and gathered Hermione up in his arms.

'Do you fancy going upstairs. Ron should be back a little later.' Harry asked.

'Uh… okay.' Hermione said a little confused as to Harry's unusual behaviour.

They made their way up the stairs. Hermione still unsure why she was feeling so tired, as she had only recently woken up.

* * *

Molly turned away from the two teenagers making their way upstairs. She turned towards the fireplace, and took a handful of floo powder. She threw it into the fireplace and called Dumbledore's office. Her head swirled throw the fireplace, and it appeared in the fireplace of an office. Even though it was the summer holidays, Dumbledore was at his desk, with a far away look in his eyes. They focused when Molly called out his name. He made his way to fireplace and listened carefully to what Molly said.

Reaching around his chair he took his cloak and flooed to the house where a lot of questions were to be answered later that day.

* * *

Harry and Hermione had settled on a bed, and Harry was stroking Hermione's hair, his heart tense with the thoughts still going through his mind. Hermione's head was lying on Harry's chest, and she could feel how tense he was. She also sensed that whatever it was he wasn't going to tell her. They both seemed to breathe a little easier when a knock at the door broke the tension slightly.

* * *

Dumbledore walked through the door, to see two of his favourite students in each other's arms. He could see however that they both tensed up when he walked in, and he didn't blame them, thinking about their last meeting.

'Relax; I'm here to talk to you about what recently happened at Grimmauld place. Do you remember anything Hermione?'

'Um… things are starting to come back to me.' Hermione said, nodding her head.

Dumbledore smiled and turned to look at Harry. 'Harry would you mind stepping outside so I could speak to Miss. Granger privately.' Harry was about to make a fuss, but stopped when he felt Hermione rub his arm. She smiled at him, when he looked down at her.

'Go on, Harry. I'll be fine.' Harry took a shaky deep breath, and kissed Hermione. Not caring that Dumbledore was in the room. He stood up and side stepped his professor.

'You do anything to her, and I _will,_ kill you.' Harry said in a quiet voice so only Dumbledore could hear.

Dumbledore took a stressed breath 'Relax Harry I'm only here to find out what happened. This has nothing to do with our last meeting.'

* * *

Once Harry had left the room, Dumbledore turned to Hermione and stared to ask the question that was playing on his mind.

'Miss Granger, I was wondering whether you could tell me what you remember from when you where back at Grimmauld place?'

Hermione took a deep breath. 'Well I went to the kitchen, and that looked okay. Better than the sitting room. And then. I think, something.' Hermione stopped, looking deep in thought. 'I know this is going to sound weird, but I think _Kretcher_ walked in. or he was there. And then everything started spinning, and things were flying all over the place, including him. But, I was in the middle. Like everything was flying around me. It was really weird, and then something flew out and whacked me across and I was just all over the place. Then I woke up here.' Hermione still looked confused, and was shaking slightly as she remembered what had happened.

Dumbledore nodded his head. 'Well I certainly knew he was powerful, but this is beyond what I thought he possessed.'

'Are you talking about Kretcher?' Hermione asked.

Dumbledore shook his head strongly. 'No, no, no, my dear. I am talking about Mr. Potter. I think it would be best for me to explain it to everyone.'

Dumbledore walked over to the door and opened it to find Harry there standing outside the door.

Harry looked at Dumbledore and walked past him to Hermione. He looked at her, and whispered, 'are you okay?' Hermione smiled and nodded her head. She took his hand and they walked out the door following Dumbledore.

* * *

When they had all met in the kitchen, it turned out Ron had arrived a few minutes earlier and Molly had already informed him of what she knew. Molly and Dumbledore along with the three teenagers were sitting around the kitchen table, nursing cups of tea, while Dumbledore was preparing what he was going to say.

'I'm going to sum up, what Hermione told me.' He began 'A type of whirlwind started the moment Kretcher entered the kitchen, where Hermione was.'

Harry took a deep breath, and grabbed Hermione's hand. He looked at her, but she was looking at the grooves in the wooden table.

'Did he hurt you, oh why am I asking that, of course he did. God I'm going to kill him.' Harry said starting to stand up, making his way to the fireplace. He was thrown back into his chair, and looked up to see Dumbledore holding his wand out.

'Let me go. How can you stop me doing this? He killed Sirius and nearly Hermione, I'm not going to let him get away with it.'

'He didn't kill Sirius. You know that. And also if you stopped a few minutes you'd also realise that he didn't nearly kill Hermione.' Dumbledore said. Harry slumped slightly when the spell was taken off him.

'I understand you recently obtained the Black's estates. Well when they were signed over to you. They would have taken some of your magic, and mixed it with the power it already has. Everyone in the room knows how powerful you are Harry. Anyway I'm getting off the point slightly. When Hermione, someone I think we all know you care about a lot. Came in contact with Kretcher, one of the beings you hate a lot. The house having taken over some of your power and also understands what you like and hate. Would have been trying to protect Hermione from Kretcher. Even though Kretcher wouldn't have done anything, the house and you probably would have thought if him and Hermione were in the same room, then she would be in danger. Am I right?'

'Of course I would think she's in danger, kretcher is a sly and dangerous monster. I wouldn't let him anywhere near her.'

'Exactly. The house sprung a defence for Hermione. Making a whirlwind, which she was the centre of. Obviously so nothing would go into her, but around, and hopefully and successfully into kretcher. The strength of how much you feel when Hermione is in danger fuels the strength of the spell. I have to say that with the strength of the whirlwind I'm surprised Hermione managed not to get hit, before. But as we all know. The stronger the power the more likely it is to lose control. Something must have flown out of the whirlwind, struck Hermione, throwing her into it. That's probably when you arrived.'

'So I did this to you?' Harry said looking down wringing his hands, feeling even guiltier.

Hermione stared daggers at Dumbledore. She turned to Harry and listed his chin. Leaning in, she hugged him, and whispered into his ear, so only he could hear.

'Harry, baby. Don't listen to him. You were trying to protect. Not hurt me. The house mimics your personality. And it just wants me safe. Don't feel guilty or anything. We're just going to learn how to control it. So if something might happen then the house would be able to protect me but after practising it won't hurt me. Please Harry. I don't like it when you blame yourself.'

'Yes but just the fact that because of how much I care for you, you still get hurt. It's my entire fault. You'll always be hurt if you're with–'

'Do not even finish that sentence Harry. I would choose you, over being safe. I would rather have one life with you than thousands without. Please don't think that I wouldn't want you because I might be unsafe.'

Harry nodded his head against her skin, closing his eyes, wanting her to realise just how much he cared for you, wanting to be close to her. Closer than skin to skin, he wanted her. And she was thinking exactly the same thing.


	14. Two sides to every story

Chapter fourteen – Two sides to every story.

After Dumbledore had left, Hermione had dragged Harry and Ron up the stairs. She entered Ginny's room, and lifted the covers of her bed. So underneath was exposed. She slowly dragged a medium cauldron out from under there. She turned around to see both the boys hovering uncertainly in the doorway. She rolled her eyes.

'Why aren't you coming in?'

'Uh, because it's a girl's room, there is girly stuff in here.' Ron said adding the last part thinking it sounded like a solid reason. Hermione shook her head and lifted the potion up in her arms. She walked past the two boys and walked into Ron's room. She placed the cauldron on the floor and sat down. Taking some ingredients she had picked up with the cauldron. She experimentally sprinkled in some owl feathers. After placing three in, she reached for the silver sand she had bought, some time before. Taking a pinch she threw it into the cauldron and it exploded with a shower of lights.

She was thrown back, and found herself being helped up by Harry. When she had sat up again she took a look in the cauldron and what she saw made her gasp. There. Staring right back at her was herself. Obviously she was expecting a reflection but what she saw was different.

The Hermione staring back at her was dressed in black. Her hair was still the same colour expect it had streaks of black running through. Her face wasn't heavily painted except for the thin line of eyeliner running around the edge of her eye, and a dose of black mascara, which accentuated her eyelashes.

She pushed her hand towards the mixture only finding her twin doing exactly the same thing.

'Look…' both of them said. 'Hang on…' they said again. Both of them turned away to consult their friends.

'Right, I think I've just about worked this out. We are exact replicas of each other.' She glanced at her twin. Noticing the difference in appearance. She shook her head. 'Okay we are exact replicas on the inside. For example, we both seem to be saying exactly the same thing at the same time. And I think, we're thinking everything the same. Look basically everything I am saying now, she is repeating to her Harry and Ron.'

'So what do we do about it?'

'Well I think we need to all get onto one plane, either theirs or ours. Obviously we would prefer ours, seeing as it is a territory we are comfortable with. But we are evil there, so they probably won't want to compromise.'

'Fine we'll go over there.' Ron said and made his way over the cauldron. Sticking his head over, he was greeted with his twin doing exactly the same thing.

'Right we are coming over. You are staying there.' Both Ron's said. 'Look, just stop talking.' They both said. Both Ron's sighed. 'We can't do this because he says exactly what I say.' Both Ron's whined in frustration.

'Oh move over.' Hermione said. She looked in at herself, took a deep breath and willed her other to stay there. She stuck her arm in to the cauldron only to find her twin's hand sticking the other side of her arm. She looked in between the two arms and saw herself again.

'Right.' Hermione said. While her hand was in the potion. What surprised her was that her twin hadn't said anything.

'Are you coming over or are we.' The evil Hermione asked.

Hermione glanced at her friends, first shocked that they weren't saying exactly the same thing together, and also that they could hear each other.

'We're coming over to you. You have to stay there. We don't want any trouble. I assume you know what can happen if we harm each other.'

'Of Course I know. I'm not stupid.'

Hermione pulled her arm out of the potion at the same time as her twin, and turned to Harry and Ron.

'So I guess we're going over there. Now this cauldron is big enough for us to squeeze through. I'll go first. Once you see me through you can come over. Okay.'

Hermione was just starting to walk back towards the cauldron when she felt Harry clutch at her arm. He glanced at Ron and pulled Hermione into a quiet area.

* * *

'Harry, what is it? This could be our breakthrough. We might be able to defeat Voldemort. We can't hang –.'

But Hermione was silenced with Harry's lips pressed up against her. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she felt herself relaxing totally into him, as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Sucking on his lips she soon found him opening to her. She felt her heart pumping increase as she found his tongue sliding around in her mouth.

Her hands that had been around his shoulders started to make their way down his back by inserting them through his collar. She lightly scratched his upper back, sending shivers through him. His hands that had been lying on her waist, suddenly found themselves under her shirt. Resting on her waist and back. He pressed himself forward pushed her into the wall. She pushed her knee up slightly so it rested between the splitting of his two legs. She slowly and gently moved her knee around, slowly massaging his groin. Harry growled deeply and slowly pulled away to look her in the eye.

'Do you know what you do to me?' Harry said in a husky voice. Hermione looked at him, and slowly licked her lips sensually turning Harry on even more.

'I can guess.' She said. 'Maybe one day, you will be kind enough to show me. You never know… I might even be able to… relieve you.' Pausing to cause Harry to moan and shuddered just thinking about it. 'But first, we are going to do this.' Hermione said. She moved out of Harry's space and headed towards the cauldron seeing Ron stare into it. Ron had ignored what had gone on in the corner, but was shocked to realise how eager they were to experiment in their relationship. He moved out of her way, and Hermione looked in to see herself standing there. Hermione leaned forward, took a deep breath, and stuck her head in. She soon surfaced to find herself coming out, so it looked like she was coming from the bottom of the cauldron. After some help from herself, she made it through.

* * *

Once they were all through. They stood up and analysed the area they were in. It was still Ron's room, except everything looked a lot darker.

'Hey' both Hermione's said. Both Harry's stood with their wands clutched in their hands.

Harry glanced at his twin, and wondered if this Harry had been through everything he had. Wondered if he had to put up with the Dursley's the bullying of his cousin. Wondered whether he had to fight against Voldemort. Whether he was going out with the evil Hermione. Whether they had just had a passionate kiss. Everything seemed so unbelievable.

'So we all know why we have done all of this. Right?' The other Hermione said.

Hermione nodded her head, her soft brown hair cascading around her face. 'Do you have any idea how we're going to do this. Are we going to all stay in one 'world' or are going to separate into each others. What?'

Both Harry's sighed. 'I think that we should separate into each other's worlds. We obviously can't stay in the same world; otherwise one world will lose Harry, Hermione and Ron. And the other will gain three teenagers.' Both Harry's said.

'Obviously we have to do it soon, otherwise I'm going to go mad with frustration.' Both Ron said.

Both Hermione glanced at each other. They rolled their eyes, and walked past their boys, so they meet in the middle. Standing close they whispered their plans, so that nobody else could hear. After a few minutes of silence between the boys, Hermione turned around and addressed the audience of four.

'We are going to switch positions. We are going to go into each other's world, impersonate each other, and our aim. To kill Voldemort.'

'Hang on a minute though. If we kill Voldemort, our evil Voldemort then won't that mean we will be killing their good Voldemort.' Ron said. At exactly the same time however, the evil Ron was saying. 'Hang on a minute though. If we kill Voldemort, our good Voldemort then won't that mean we will be killing their evil Voldemort.'

Hermione sighed, walked back over to Ron and pulled him aside. 'Okay listen to this Ron. Our philosophy in our world is good triumphs over evil. That it is wrong to be evil. And everything connected to evil is bad. Well in this world, it is the total opposite. To balance our world out, so basically here, it is evil that triumphs over good, that it is wrong to be good. And it is frowned upon. So by killing our 'evil' Voldemort, we will be restoring the whole good over evil. And killing their good Voldemort it will be restoring evil over good. Now I know it sounds strange and something we have always been trying to fight against. But we have to understand that these are their views. They find it just as hard to understand why we would want good to win. When we find it hard to understand why they would want evil to win.'

'Good I bet Malfoy would love it here.' Ron said.

'Yeah, I bet _our_ Malfoy would want to be here, but think about the Malfoy that is actually here. He is good.'

'I'd like to see that.' Ron said. 'I can't wait to see how half our friends turned out.'

Hermione rolled her eyes again, and turned back towards the other trio.

'So are we staying and you going over to our world?' Hermione asked. The other Hermione nodded her head. Both Harry's suddenly had a confused look on their faces.

'Hang on a minute, how come, you two aren't talking at the same time, but Ron and I are?' both Harry's asked.

Hermione looked unsure. 'I dunno. It's strange.' The other Hermione said.

'Right. If we're staying here and you are going over there, then you need to know what sort of things we do. We don't want to act suspiciously do we.' Hermione said.

The other Hermione shock her head. 'Right basically we are bad. If you come across a goodie two shoes, then we torture or kill them. We have no idea where Voldemort is; otherwise we would have destroyed him. But as you know, he is powerful, and wants to destroy us just as much as we want to destroy him.'

'Okay, and we are just about the total opposite of that, however we try to harm death eaters. Not kill, otherwise that would end us up in Azcaban. So please don't do that.'

'I suppose once we have gotten to Voldemort we can just switch back to our normal selves and stop acting like you?' Hermione said.

'Yes. But I don't know how we can kill him. We are exactly the same just in different worlds.'

'Don't worry, Harry you being evil, won't be afraid to kill him, and I don't think we will have a problem either. Anyway you have to remember, that everything that happens to him on one side will happen on the other.'

'Also seeing as we have opened this portal, not everything is connected as it was. You can see that already we.' Hermione said pointing between herselves. 'We have stopped talking at the same time. We need to be quick otherwise Voldemort may be fine in one world and killed in another. And that is going to wreck the balance thing.'

'Fine we'll go. But carry some of the potion in a flask or something, then we can communicate once we have separated. We need to keep in contact.'

Both Hermione's took a deep breath. What had they got themselves into? They thought, because now they might not have wrecked one world, but two.


	15. Opposites Aren't Always The Same

Chapter Fifteen – Opposites Aren't Always The Same

Once everyone had departed to their opposite worlds, Hermione looked down at what she was wearing. Having to swap clothes with her evil twin, she now looked like she was made for the night. Black clothes clung to her skin. Little was left to the imagination as much of her pasty skin was exposed. Her twin had done her hair so that the edges were black and her face now resembled what she looked like in this world. Hermione had probably gotten the worse end of the deal as Harry and Ron had just stayed in jeans and a shirt remaining black. Harry's hair was black anyway so with the end result he looked very dark. Ron's however was still flaming red, but coordinated well with the dark clothes they were wearing. The things they all had to change drastically however were their attitudes. Hermione, Harry and Ron who had always been out to help, suddenly found themselves having to torture any thing that came their way. They were the most respected people in their world, and it was the same in this world. However the reasons were different.

The trio stood looking at each other, and Hermione took a deep breath. This was dangerous. She voiced her concern to the boys opposite her.

Ron wrapped his arm around Hermione's shoulders and replied in a casual voice. 'When is anything we ever do, ever not dangerous?'

Suddenly a voice echoed throughout the house. 'Lunch's ready'.

'I wonder how different everyone is going to be?'

'Ron, you can't go giving us away, neither can you Harry. Anything could happen.' Hermione began rambling. 'Nobody will realise that people can switch worlds like we did, and could kill us. They might think, if we don't act like how we're supposed to, that we're not who we really are, and might be impostors.'

'Herm, chill. Everything will be okay.' Ron said.

'Don't call me Herm. You know I don't like being called that.'

'LUNCH. IS. READY.' Molly Weasley shouted up the stairs.

'Guess we've gotta face the music.' Harry mumbled, as the three friends made their way downstairs.

When they entered the room, all three pairs of eyes widened. There in the centre of the Weasley home, where flowers or ornaments used to sit were skulls and potions lying around.

'What is wrong with you three. Why aren't you sitting down?' Mrs Weasley asked at the teenagers.

The trio didn't say anything instead choosing to sit down at the already laid table, and began serving themselves the food presented in front of them.

Molly glanced at the three children sitting at her table and frowned. They were very quiet. Too quiet, and that always meant that they were up to something, something that would undoubtedly lead them into trouble.

Taking a piece of sausage and just before placing it into her mouth she looked up and spoke out loud.

'So. What are you three up to now?'

The three looked up and glanced at each other. Daring to dart looks with worry and anxious expressions written into their faces.

'Um. What makes you think we're up to anything uh.' Ron said glancing at Hermione. 'Mum?'

'Oh I don't know, the fact that for once in your lives you're all very quiet, and why are you looking so nervous?' She answered.

'No reason, it's just been a very strenuous day, Mrs Weasley.' Harry said.

Mrs Weasley nodded her head, as if she believed him. However she always trusted her instincts and they were rarely wrong. She would give them the benefit of the doubt, but like a mother she would keep her eyes open.

Once they had all finished the meal, which had been just as good in this world as the other, they decided to go outside to have a look at the world they were now in.

When they opened the gate of 'The Burrow' they were shocked to see that the environment was nothing like what they were used to. Instead of the blossoming flowers, which ran throughout the garden, they were given the site of deadening buds. The grass had turned a slight dull brown, from the lack of care, nutrients and water. Gnomes ran wild throughout the garden, however when spying the trio making their way out into their new home, they quickly scurried back into the bushes, their wide eyes peeping through the leaves of the brown shrubbery. One unfortunate gnome who hadn't witnessed the teenagers continued to roam the garden.

Mrs Weasley came out to see if they had wanted extra pudding, however upon spying the gnome she whipped out her wand and aimed it at the still naive gnome.

'Expelleramous' she shouted. The teenagers expecting to see a silver light to exit her wand to throw the gnome away were thrown from their expectation when an orangey greenish light sped out and destroyed the gnome. The gnome that had been standing there moments before, was now gone, and in his place was a pile of ash, smouldering from the heat.

Hermione who was very passionate against cruelty to house elves, believe that the concept should apply to all magical beings. Seeing the poor, little, defenceless being burnt to a crisp, made her gasp. She had to turn away as the image, which had been imprinted into her mind, replayed itself over and over again. Tears leaked out of her eyes as she tried to keep them in. She quickly started walking away slowly breaking out into a jog and then into a flat out run.

The boys knowing how sensitive Hermione was about magical beings should have been expecting her to react the way she did. However with the sudden change in how the spell was presented and the effect of it, sent them into a whirl of thoughts.

They snapped out of them as they noticed Hermione had left their side. Harry had already started out after her. However Ron felt he should stay after his mother shouted a command after them.

'What is wrong with Hermione?' She asked after noticing Hermione had run off after tears ran down her face.

'Um… She's been a bit weird all day, I don't really know why.' Ron said hoping that that answer would suffice his slightly scary mum.

'Ah' Molly said, understanding that it was probably a girl's problem. Maybe that was why they were all acting strange today. Her mood must have rubbed off onto the boys.

Hermione ran through the garden and slumped against a dying tree. She clamped her eyes shut, but the tears still managed to slip through. She wrapped her arms around her body and gently rocked herself. It was a useless way of comforting. Hermione knew why she was upset, other than what she had just witnessed, she was just in shock with how different this world was. Her research and understanding led her to believe that this world would be almost the same, but the objects that were the same would be different. However this world was completely different, it was no way near anything similar to what she had expected.

She had to remind herself why she was doing this. Why was she putting herself through such torture and pain? Through her hazy and messed up mind, one image stood out clear. Harry. Harry was the reason she was doing this. And Harry was the reason she would do it again and again. Harry who had depended upon no one, asked for nothing, but deserved everything. That was why, and she needed to remember that. This was no time to become selfish; this was the time for Harry. And she would be damned if he didn't get that.

The object of her thoughts soon was in front of her, leaning down to look into her hazel eyes, which held deep determination. He plonked himself down by her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. Hermione sighed, leaning against his chest, her mission pumped through her blood. She could feel her pulse, everything pulsating the word Harry, Harry, Harry, throughout her mind and body.

'You okay?' Harry whispered into her hair.

'Yeah, I'm fine. It was just a bit of a shock to see that poor little gnome destroyed. You know how I get when things to do with cruelty happen to little things. I just don't like it.'

'You don't have to justify yourself to me, Hermione. I like that you are such a caring person. That's one of the many qualities that made me like you so much.'

'Thanks Harry, that means a lot to me.' Just then Ron had appeared in front of them.

'You okay there Ron?' Harry asked seeing his friend look a bit out of breath. Ron nodded.

'We need to sort out our story or something because I always seem to end up having to explain some situation or another to…um…my mum. The only thing is she is nothing like my mum. She is mad, and scary.'

'Fine then, do you fancy sorting this out now?' Hermione said, her tears subsided and a calm look had rested upon her face.

'Oh sorry Hermione, are you okay?' Ron asked just remembering that Hermione had been crying moments before.

Hermione rolled her eyes, 'Yes Ron, I'm fine you don't need to worry about me, either of you. I'm fine, now lets get this story sorted.'

'Hang on, you two, shouldn't we talk about the spell Mrs Weasley did. She performed the expelleramous one, except it wasn't silver, it was orangey greenish, plus it didn't disarm the gnome, it destroyed him.' Harry said after recalling the earlier events.

'Well maybe it has something to do with the fact that the intended target was a gnome. Maybe they are weaker and destroyed instead of being disarmed?' Ron said voicing his opinion.

Hermione shock her head, 'No, it can't be that. Gnomes hold centuries of magic and are just as old as wizards. Plus there is the fact that the colour of the spell was slightly green and orange. We all know what that means don't we.'

Harry and Ron glanced at each other; Hermione picked up on this and shuck her head again. 'Honestly, what would you do without me. Spells as we know, are classified due to their danger and the reasons they are used. Healing spells using the colour of blue. Disarming spells usually the colour of silver. However harming spells such as the death curse, and many others which cause pain, are the colour of green. Now this spell, held the colour of green, which is obviously a spell which we avoid a lot, and it being greenish gives me the impression that it is dangerous and should not be used.'

'Yes but why is a disarming spell which we know about classified as dangerous here?'

'Well maybe it's to do with the fact that the expelleramous spell is used a lot in our world, and we classify it as good. Remember it's the opposite here, so the expelleramous spell here must be used a lot and classified as evil. Which is what we are over here.' Hermione said carrying on here commentary.

'Merlin, this is so complicated. I don't think I'm ever going to understand all this opposites and similarities between everything. What on earth did we let ourselves in for?' Ron mumbled.


End file.
